Tobacco Institute seeks farmer-friendly policies

The Tobacco Institute of India (TII) has urged the government to introduce farmer friendly-policies that would maximise benefits from tobacco.

It also sought a pragmatic and equitable taxation policy that would help reduce the huge duty differential between cigarettes and traditional tobacco, while simultaneously working towards fulfilling the social objectives of tobacco control.

Speaking at the TII Tobacco Farmer's Awards ceremony held here at the Fapcci auditorium on Sunday, Udayan Lall, director, TII, said, "Inequitable and discriminatory taxation has excessively burdened the cigarettes segment and compelled consumers to shift to cheaper and revenue-inefficient products. Hence, only a pragmatic taxation policy would encourage transition from the traditional forms of consumption to contemporary forms, which uses flue-cured virginia (FCV) tobacco."

Though FCV tobacco provides much higher returns to farmers, past policies have resulted in FCV tobacco comprising less than 35 per cent of the total tobacco produced in the country.

Cigarettes with a meagre 14 per cent share of total tobacco consumption, contribute as much as 85 per cent of the revenue from the tobacco sector, Lall added.

A total of 14 farmers from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were presented with various awards.