Cigaratte, bidi packs to continue with old warning till end-2011

Cigaratte manufacturers have got a year's reprieve with the union cabinet yesterday agreeing to hold back the implementation of the proposed new scary warnings on cigarette and bidi packs till December 2011.

The decision means cigarettes and bidi packs will continue to be sold in packs with the current pictorial warnings, a cancer-affected lung and a scorpion respectively for another year.

The arrangement will also give the industry time to make its case against the implementation of disturbing images.

According to sources, the cabinet supported the health ministry's proposal to defer implementation of the new warnings by a year - gory pictures of a cancer-affected mouth, following protests by the tobacco industry. Also with two major manufacturers suspending production from 1 December, losses by way of excise duty mounted to crores of rupees daily.

The union health ministry decided to approach the cabinet after a Pranab Mukherjee-led group of ministers informally met health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad last month. During the meeting the new picture was rejected.

The new graphic warning was cleared by the health minister earlier this year after a survey found that the existing warnings had failed to have the desired effect on smokers.