New law drafted by centre to raise legal age of smoking tobacco

Jan. 4: In a significant move, the Union government has prepared a bill to raise the age for allowing sale of cigarettes and tobacco products to 21 years from the current 18 years. The draft also seeks to prohibit selling of these products to anyone below the bar of 21 years, the Ministry informed. This is part of the new bill being piloted by the Union Health Ministry.

The bill seeks to amend further the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003. The penalty for smoking at restricted areas is being increased from Rs 200 to Rs 2,000. The bill further stated that no person shall directly or indirectly advertise cigarettes or any other tobacco products through any medium.

Under the amendments proposed in the bill, “No person shall sell, offer for sale, or permit sale of, cigarette or any other tobacco product – (a) to or by any person who is under twenty-one years of age, and in an area within a radius of one hundred meters of any educational institution.” Section 7 is being amended to say, “”No person shall, directly or indirectly, produce, supply or distribute cigarettes or any other tobacco products unless every package of cigarettes or any other tobacco products produced, supplied or distributed by him is having minimum quantity as may be prescribed.”