Tobacco.org

Cigarette smuggling, excise hike haunt AP tobacco farmers 

TOBACCO farmers of Andhra Pradesh, caught in the vice-like grip of involuntary excess production (overshooting the annual crop size stipulated by the Tobacco Board) indicate an indirect crop loss of nearly 20 million kg on account of contraband cigarettes entering through the porous land borders with Nepal and Bangladesh. The other problem cited by them is the growing instability vis-à-vis excise on cigarettes.

They fear that the increasingly large volumes of such cigarettes coming from across the borders will gradually kill the domestic industry and, consequently, severely affect the livelihood of the five million tobacco farmers, mainly in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

The spurt in cigarette smuggling, it is pointed out, also means a significant loss of revenue for the Government, estimated at around Rs 2,000 crore annually.

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