K’taka tobacco growers seek excise duty cut

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Bangalore, Apr 11: Tobacco growers in Karnataka have demanded the Union government to rollback the abnormal hike in excise duty on non-filter cigarettes that would affect the livelihood of 37 lakh farmers in the state.

SM Anantharam, president of Karnataka Tobacco Growers' Forum said, around 70,000 hectares of rain fed lands are covered under tobacco cultivation in the state. In the total 95-100 million kgs of tobacco produced per year, he said around 25-30% of the commodity is lower grade that is procured for non-filter cigarettes.

He said the government, in its recent budget, has increased the excise duty ranging from 150% to nearly 400% on non-filter cigarettes.

He also said tobacco cultivated in Karnataka has high demand in the world market as it has less contents of tar, nicotine and sugar. In this case, he said the government should encourage the industry.

If the government wanted the farmers to shelve of tobacco cultivation, he said it should introduce other alternative crops. He said tobacco cultivated lands in Karnataka could not see bumper revenue in other alternative crops. For instance, he said around 500-600 kgs of tobacco could be cultivated in one acre of land that would fetch around Rs 6,000 to 7,000, he said.