ITC Ltd, the country’s largest cigarette maker has announced that it would continue the production of cigarette in its factories. It is “consequent upon” the court order, which has gone in its favour, two weeks after it had closed his plants due to new packaging rules.
Government of India had issued an order on April 1, that 85 per cent of the cigarette pack will have to print health warnings. As the policy was not clear with the traders, they had stopped the production.
“Consequent upon a high court order passed in favor of the company, the company will soon resume manufacture of cigarettes in its factories,” ITC, part-owned by British American Tobacco released a statement, further quoted by Reuters.
ITC declared earlier this month, that it will not print bigger health warning graphics as it will be ‘excessive’. It also accused the Government of implementing new rules even though the parliamentary panel report had ordered the size of the warnings to be reduced.
More than 1 million people in this country, die every year because of smoking as per the observation of BMJ Global Health. WHO says that India spends more than $16 billion a year on tobacco related diseases.
