New Delhi: While it has lauded the Prime Minister Narendra Modi''s ''Vocal for Local'' campaign, the Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA), a non-profit organization representing farmers and farm workers of commercial crops has appealed the government to shun the legacy of tobacco control policies aping the Western world and adopt policies that are rooted in the reality of tobacco consumption pattern of India.
As per the association, over 120 million kg of FCV tobacco worth around Rs 2000 crores remains unsold in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It has reportedly claimed more than Rs 5,000 crore loss to the FCV tobacco farming community in last 6 years.
The Federation has appealed the government not to take policy decisions in present pandemic that increases instability and adverse impact on the livelihood of Indian FCV tobacco farmers while promoting foreign smuggled tobacco brands.
It has also appealed to the government to be sensitive towards the financial distress faced by FCV tobacco farmer because of COVID pandemic and reduce cigarette taxes to pre-GST levels so the market share of smuggled foreign brands can reduce and Indian industry and farmer can benefit in line with the Vocal for Local vision of the Prime Minister.
According to the Federation, India has a unique pattern of tobacco consumption and cigarettes are the smallest component of tobacco consumption in India and constitute only 9% of tobacco use. Only 3 per cent of the adult population consumes cigarettes. While, smokeless tobacco product users and bidi smokers outnumber cigarette smokers by 6 times and 3 times respectively.
Cigarettes account for more than 80% of revenue from tobacco taxation, while the contribution to tax collections from the other two segments is insignificant. Majority of the tobacco industry (68%) is in the untaxed or unorganized sector, mentioned the statement from the Federation.