Retailers call for restraint
The government of India intends to restrict the practice of selling cigarettes per stick, which accounts for 70 percent of cigarette consumption.
The Sri Lanka Tobacco Retailers’ Association has urged the government to act with restraint when taxing and regulating tobacco products, according to a story in The Daily News.
Representatives of the association last week met the newly-appointed Finance Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, to highlight several issues facing tobacco traders.
They said that the association’s membership of more than 100,000 had been adversely affected by the government’s tax hike on tobacco products in October.
The tax hike had impacted livelihoods severely because it had affected sales of other products that were normally bought by tobacco consumers entering their shops.
Many tobacco consumers had switched to illicit products so no longer entered their shops.
The representatives asked the minister to maintain the prices of licit tobacco products at reasonable levels, not implement a proposed ban on single-stick sales, and not introduce regulations that would affect their business and livelihoods in a drastic manner.
They said that tobacco traders had conducted their businesses in an ethical manner, respecting the laws and regulations applying to the tobacco trade.
