Cigarette industry for taxing tobacco products

New Delhi, Feb 24 (UNI) The cigarette industry has urged for extension of taxes to lightly or untaxed products such as beedis and chewed tobacco products like pan masala and bring it at par with cigarettes.

''There is a huge difference in the excise duty rates between cigarette and other tobacco products which is impeding revenue growth as it forces cigrette consumers to shift to cheaper and lower revenue alternatives,'' said a study on eve of Budget 2008-09.

In order to prevent under valuation of highly taxed products like cigarette, it is recommended that the custom duties should be converted to its specific levy equivalent to domestic excise duties.

The industry also said there is no compelling reasons to set up additional capacity for exports as it may lead to leakage of stocks into the domestic market, resulting in revenue losses.

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