Andhra Pradesh

Cheap cigarettes ruling the roost

HYDERABAD: After cheap liquor, it’s now the turn of cheap cigarettes to flood the State capital. Of late, more than two dozen brands of cheap cigarettes have surfaced in the twin cities and cigarette sellers allege that these are smuggled into Hyderabad from different States without paying any excise or value added tax.

It is alleged that those involved in this racket are offering very good margins to the pan shop owners.

While the printed price of some of the brands is Rs. 17 a pack, they are offered at a rate as little as Rs. 6 per pack to the pan shop owner. Most of them are priced at Rs. 10 per pack also.

Disclosing this at a press conference here on Saturday, the Pan Shop Owners Association of India representatives maintained that these cigarettes are made without any quality controls and hence are more dangerous.

These low-priced brands - Black, Fighter, Hitler, Indus, Radisson, Pelican, Power 10, Speed 100, Civil, Venus, Pillar, Clock, Superman, Impact, Viking, Top10, Fursat, Puff Times, Love 10, Perfect, Kartoos, Shalimar, Flame, Megha and Ronson.

The association president Rangaraj Shankar Rao alleged that these products were being smuggled from Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan and that a city-based manufacturer was behind the scam.

He urged the pan shop owners not to sell the poor quality products.

Y. Satish Kumar, general secretary of Hyderabad Pan Shop Owners’ Association demanded that the government earmark smoking zones across the city since the income of the pan shop owners would be affected drastically with ban on smoking in public places.

“We request the government to allow smoking in and around 10 metres radius of pan shops until the smoke zones are arranged,” he said.

There are about 12,000 pan shops in the city.

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