The Tobacco Institute of India (TII) has urged the government to impose high taxation on the cigarette smuggling.

The goods and services tax (GST) is an opportunity to address the high tax, investment, available with cigarette smuggling syndicates.

TII said, this move, aims to curb the illegal cigarette industry, and will thereby provide relief to distressed farmers, the legal cigarette industry and also increase revenue collection from this sector.

Cigarettes are among the top five smuggled goods in the country and India is the fourth largest illegal cigarette market in the world.

Legal cigarettes in India accounts for just 11% of the overall tobacco consumption, the rest 89% is represented by traditional products like chewing tobacco and “bidis”.

Since smuggled products do not use locally grown tobaccos, the illegal trade affects demand for domestic tobaccos.

Thus, this will affect the earnings and livelihood of tobacco farmers in the country.

The TII said in a statement, “The illegal trade of cigarettes in India, like the rest of the world, is controlled by criminal and terrorist organizations.”

“It has been determined internationally, that the cigarette smuggling profits, have been used to fund criminal and terrorist activities, facing a huge threat to national security,” said TII.

TII Director Syed Mahmood Ahmad, said, “The GST bill presents a unique opportunity to the government to address the growing illegal trade in the country.”

“The increased vigilance by enforcement agencies, has led to the interception of illegal consignments of smuggled cigarettes.”

“Seizures are only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger and threatening operation in illegal cigarette trade in the country.” added Mr. Ahmad.

Instances of heightened seizures of smuggled cigarettes by enforcement agencies are given below.

According to sources, customs officials in Coimbatore seized Rs 38.65 lakh on March 15, and soon after this, illegal cigarettes worth Rs 10.38 lakh, were seized  on March 17.

The Directorate of Revenue (DRI) officials, on March 3, arrested three individuals, in Noida, for illegal possession of a large consignment of foreign brands worth Rs 15 crores.

Smuggled cigarettes valued at Rs 2.2 crore were seized in separate raids at Mumbai's Nhava Sheva port, on January 31.

A joint team of State Tobacco Control and the police stopped cigarette packs from being sold openly in a Chandigarh mall.

During the last five years, the legal cigarette industry has seen a huge surge.

TII, is a representative body of manufacturers, farmers, and exporters.

By Supraja