The quitline number -- 1800-11-2356 -- is a dedicated toll-free number to help tobacco users receive free support and guidance to subdue their addiction.
Most of the changes have come about in the last four years and ITC is now reaping the dividends - standalone revenues from the non-cigarettes FMCG business have grown 40 per cent from FY17 to Rs 14,728.21 crore in FY21 and pre-tax profits 30 times to Rs 823.69 crore. The business accounted for 30.58 per cent of gross revenues and 4.85 per cent of pre-tax profits in FY21. "In the last four years, our margins in FMCG have gone up by 640 basis points (bps) and EBITDA margins have been moving up consistently. "We created levers that enabled a sustained growth trajectory," said ITC chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri. Puri took charge as the chief executive officer in 2017; in 2018, he was redesignated managing director and effective May 2019, he became chairman.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Dilip Gandhi's remarks that all studies linking cancer to tobacco have come from abroad and that there is no Indian survey report to confirm it.
The highest-ever goods and services tax (GST) evasion has been done by the online money gaming industry.
ITC buys two-thirds of tobacco from Andhra Pradesh and the remaining one-third from Karnataka for its cigarette manufacturing division
The world's third largest tobacco company by sales volume, Japan Tobacco Inc, has invested $65 million (Rs 293 crore) in its Indian unit without increasing its shareholding, just days ahead of a government decision to ban foreign direct investment in cigarette manufacturing.
Leading conglomerate ITC will soon increase prices of cigarette brands like Classic and Gold Flake Kings by up to 15 per cent per pack.
A new study by the University of Auckland has provided the first evidence that nicotine delivered through electronic cigarettes can help reduce one's desire to smoke, the Tobacco Control journal reported.
The facility, which will manufacture nicotine and nicotine salts, will conform to stringent US and EU pharmacopoeia standards that define purity levels at 99.2 per cent for nicotine meant for pharmaceutical products. ITC will leverage the institutional capabilities of its century-old leaf tobacco business for this. ITC's cigarettes business saw disruptions across the value chain with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company mentioned in its annual report that with easing of restrictions and improvement in mobility from September 2020 onwards, the business recovered progressively over the remainder of the year to reach nearly pre-Covid levels towards the close of the year.
Over 12,000 children in the age group of 6-13 years, mostly from poor families living near Ganga Ghats, in Varanasi are tobacco and drug addicts, a survey has said.
The Supreme Court has said that the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, including the rules related to pictorial warning on cigarette and tobacco products, will be implemented from May 31 and there will be no further extensions. The court further stated that in view of this promise, no court in the country shall pass any order inconsistent with this order.
'Imagine the message it sends to people. They will think tobacco cannot be a killer because LIC is investing in it.' 'The so-called rakshak (protector) has become a bhakshak (destroyer).'
The main issue in combating smoking is quality tobacco cessation and counseling services. Without these, there is no way to effectively enforce these bans.
After a prolonged delay, government will soon notify new pictorial warnings on tobacco products, which will be "harsher" in case of chewing tobacco as it has been found more harmful than smoking.
The rules make India's health warnings on tobacco products the world's most stringent, along with Thailand
Popular American cigarette brand Marlboro will be soon imported and sold in the country by Anchor group company Nivedit Tobacco Co.
While the American Club Cool Fresh Taste saw the minimum hike of 10 per cent, from Rs 200 to Rs 220 for a pack of 20 cigarettes, the price of Navy Cut Filter rose by about 16 per cent, at Rs 80 for a pack of 10 sticks. Flake Filter has become costlier by 14 per cent at Rs 80, while prices of Flake Special Filter, Flake Blue Special Filter and Wave Cool Mint rose by 20 per cent.
Indian Asthma Care Society on Monday demanded that every pack of cigarettes or any other tobacco product should contain a pictorial depiction of "skull and cross bones" to make consumers aware of its ill effects on health.
Australia has become the first country to initiate a new law proposing strict packaging rules for tobacco companies to sell their cigarette packs 'plain' without display of logo or imagery on the cover by January 1, 2012.
For instance, a pack of 20 Classic branded cigarettes (from ITC) now costs Rs 120.
Global tobacco majors Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International on Friday deplored as "discriminatory," the Indian government's decision to ban foreign investment in cigarettes.
The tobacco business was increasingly coming under prohibition by various regulations.
Seventy years after Pather Panchali released on August 26, 1955, we finally get it. Shuttling between the village of Boral and a studio in Calcutta, caught between worrying about the next purse of funds and wondering which item to mortgage next, Satyajit Ray was explaining Indians to themselves, discovers Sreehari Nair.
In another step against smoking, the government has reduced by 50 per cent the duty free allowance of cigarettes to 100 sticks and 25 cigars in airports. The decision comes barely a day after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed 'sin tax' and announced increase in excise duty on cigarettes in the range of 11 to 72 per cent.
ITC stock slipped over 4 per cent on Thursday (February 8) after British American Tobacco (BAT) said it could sell some of its stake in the company, recovering partially in trade. The stock of the cigarette-to-hotels conglomerate traded at Rs 420 levels, rising 1.3 per cent in intraday deals as compared to the S&P BSE Sensex that traded flat for most part of the day. The development, meanwhile, saw Jefferies downgrade the stock to 'hold' from 'buy' earlier with a target price of Rs 430, down a huge 17.3 per cent from its earlier price target of Rs 520.
The companies said there was no clarity on types of warnings to be carried on the packages. ITC, the maker of India Kings, Gold Flake and Navy Cut, stopped production at all the five units located across India from yesterday. It has manufacturing facilities in Bangalore, Munger, Saharanpur and Kolkata.
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Shares of cigarette companies such as Godfrey Phillips and ITC surged as much as 10.4 per cent on Thursday.
The law bans fruit and spice-flavoured cigarettes, slaps expansive new warnings on packages and gets rid of the monikers 'light' and 'low-tar'.
'Everything can be resolved, but my husband's legacy is not up for sale.'
Trade unions on Tuesday opposed the entry of foreign direct investment in the country's tobacco sector, considered the largest in the world, and asked the Government not to experiment in such 'socially sensitive' areas.
Some cigarette-smokers may switch to beedis, or gutka, which is probably not the outcome the health ministry wants.
Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has lost the battle to make depiction of skull and cross-bones on all tobacco products mandatory with Cabinet on Friday declaring it would be optional.
Tobacco products will henceforth carry larger pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the packaging space as a central notification comes into effect from Friday notwithstanding a parliamentary panel's recommendation for a drastic reduction in the size of the visual message.
Seven out of 10 smokers in India are aware that smoking is dangerous. Yet, 53 per cent have been unsuccessful in their attempts to quit.
Foreign cigarette companies could soon find it harder to sell their products in India. The government is looking into a proposal to ban foreign direct investment (FDI) in the wholesale marketing arms of these companies. It is also exploring the possibility of shifting the import of tobacco products from the open general licence (OGL) to the restricted list.
With the total tax burden currently at 53 per cent, 19.5 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively for cigarettes, bidis and smokeless, tobacco taxation in India is much lower than the level recommended by the World Health Organisation.
