Excise hike may hit tobacco growers
Growers of FCV tobacco say the 150% to 400% hike in excise duty on non-filter cigarettes will wipe out this segment.
By TNN |
BANGALORE: Growers of FCV (flue-cured Virginia, smoked in cigarettes) tobacco say the 150% to 400% hike in excise duty on non-filter cigarettes will wipe out this segment. They warn that the absence of non-filter cigarettes will lead to a 30% drop in the overall tobacco crop production, impacting the livelihood of 35 lakh people involved in tobacco farming in Karnataka alone.
Karnataka Tobacco Growers Federation president L Ananda said such a severe reduction in the demand for cigarette tobaccos will destroy tobacco farmers since the realisations from alternate crops were too low to be viable. Several attempts to grow alternate crops in rain-fed areas had, he said, failed.
Karnataka Tobacco Growers Forum president S M Anantharamu wondered how the government was willing to jeopardise the future of tobacco growers when it was claiming that farmers��� incomes should be protected.
���What is mystifying is that the union finance minister has imposed an astronomically high excise duty on non-filter cigarettes while protecting bidis and gutka which are far more toxic. We have appealed to the government to roll back the hike or keep it to reasonable limits,��� he said.
Industry sources added that growers wanted the hike to be limited to the extent of inflationary trends but that their attempts to meet the finance minister had not met with success.
Karnataka Tobacco Growers Federation president L Ananda said such a severe reduction in the demand for cigarette tobaccos will destroy tobacco farmers since the realisations from alternate crops were too low to be viable. Several attempts to grow alternate crops in rain-fed areas had, he said, failed.
Karnataka Tobacco Growers Forum president S M Anantharamu wondered how the government was willing to jeopardise the future of tobacco growers when it was claiming that farmers��� incomes should be protected.
���What is mystifying is that the union finance minister has imposed an astronomically high excise duty on non-filter cigarettes while protecting bidis and gutka which are far more toxic. We have appealed to the government to roll back the hike or keep it to reasonable limits,��� he said.
Industry sources added that growers wanted the hike to be limited to the extent of inflationary trends but that their attempts to meet the finance minister had not met with success.
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