NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, April 4, 2016

FMCG major ITC on Saturday said it is not ready to print larger pictorial warnings on its cigarette packs, as required under a new government norm, and its factories will be shut till clarity emerges on the matter. Since Friday, under a new government notification, tobacco products are required to carry larger pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the display area on packets.

Insisting that “the question of the legality of the new warnings has been and continues to be pending before the Court”, the company said it “did not commit to wasting substantial resources in creating the large number of cylinders and other tools necessary for a change-over of the warnings”.

“As a result, the company is at present not in readiness to print the health warnings,” the company said in a BSE filing. “ITC has been compelled to shut its cigarette factories with effect from April 1, 2016, until clarity emerges in the current uncertain state of the rules on health warning,” it added.

The company further said the implementation of any change in the health warnings on the cigarette packages is an elaborate process for the manufacturers, entailing months of preparation involving substantial cost and effort.