The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Tobacco growers seek rollback of excise duty

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Thursday, Apr 10, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Tobacco growers seek rollback of excise duty

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Flu-Cured Virginia Tobacco Growers’ Welfare Association has appealed to the Union government to rollback the excise duty on non-filter cigarettes.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, G. Sivaram Prasad, general secretary, said that the excise duty on non-filtered tobacco had been hiked from 150 per cent to 400 per cent. This would adversely affect the interests of the tobacco growers. The government’s move would completely wipe out the non-filtered cigarette segment that accounted for 30 per cent of the industry.

Former vice-chairman of Tobacco Board G. Seetaramaiah said that the decision would impact 35 lakh people involved in growing tobacco.

They said that they were willing to phase out the crop over the years, in the larger interest of the people. However, the government could not afford to render the farmers jobless on account of the hike in excise duty, they said.

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