Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003

Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003

Subject – Government Schemes

Context – Stop tobacco sale to youth, says NCPCR

Concept –

• It is an Act of Parliament of India enacted in 2003 to prohibit advertisement of, and to provide for the regulation of trade and commerce in, and production, supply and distribution of cigarettes and other tobacco products in India.
• It replaced the Cigarettes Act of 1975 (largely limited to statutory warnings- ‘Cigarette Smoking is Injurious to Health’ to be displayed on cigarette packs and advertisements. It did not include non-cigarettes).
• The 2003 Act also included cigars, bidis, cheroots, pipe tobacco, hookah, chewing tobacco, pan masala, and gutka.
• Tobacco products cannot be sold to person below the age of 18 years, and in places within 100 yards radius from the outer boundary of an institution of education, which includes school colleges and institutions of higher learning established or recognized by an appropriate authority.
• Tobacco products must be sold, supplied or distributed in a package which shall contain an appropriate pictorial warning, its nicotine and tar contents.
• The owner/manager/in-charge of a public place must display a board containing the warning “No Smoking Area – Smoking here is an offence” in appropriate manner at the entrance and inside the premises.
• The Act also gives power to any police officer, not below the rank of a sub-inspector or any officer of State Food or Drug Administration or any other officer, holding the equivalent rank being not below the rank of Sub-Inspector of Police for search and seizure of premises where tobacco products are produced, stored or sold, if he suspects that the provision of the Act has been violated.

Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2020

• It was mandated that the specified health warning shall cover at least 85% of the principal display area of the package.
• Of this, 60% shall cover pictorial health warning and 25% shall cover textual health warning.
• This shall be positioned on the top edge of the package and in the same direction as the information on the principal display area.