Centre urged to withdraw excise duty concessions on cigarette units

NEW DELHI, August 28: Alarmed by the mad rush of cigarette companies to get bases in the Northeast to avail of the 100 per cent excise waiver, a powerful lobby of cigarette manufacturers has started pressuring the Union government to withdraw the excise concessions to avoid a cut-throat competition among the manufacturers. Even as the move to force the Union government to abandon the excise duty concession scheme gathers momentum, another tobacco giant has joined the race to set up plants in the Northeast by submitting a proposal worth Rs 525 crore. The Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) has sought licence to manufacture 60 billion cigarettes annually through two plants proposed to be set up in Assam and Tripura. With ITC's bid, the total investment proposal in the Northeast, particularly Assam and Tripura, has gone up to nearly Rs 1,000 crore and that too in less than two months of announcement of excise waiver. But investment proposals are not the only applications to reach the Union government, as the Union finance ministry here has been flooded with equal number of petitions to withdraw the concessions.