Old anti-tobacco warnings to stay till Aug 31

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

The government on Tuesday deferred the deadline for the implementation of new anti-tobacco warnings that need to be rotated with stricter deterrent images every two years.

The Ministry of Health amended the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2008, that mandate the two-yearly rotation and allowed the deadline for new warnings to be extended from April 1, 2018, to August 31, 2018. The last set of pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the exposed area of all tobacco packages was implemented from April 1, 2016.

A new set of warnings is ready and was to roll out from April 1 this year as per the law. It is learnt that the anti-tobacco movement and ministry’s thoughts to introduce on tobacco packages government’s toll-free Tobacco Quit Line number led to consternation in the tobacco industry that has been miffed since last pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent package area were approved and implemented.

The industry is said to be wary of publication of quit line number on their products and fear massive sale reductions.