Gold Flake to get larger pictorial warning as company decides to comply with govt order

Gujarat-based cigarette manufacturer, Golden Tobacco Company is going to comply with the Health Ministry's new norm of covering 85% of the cigarette packet with a health warning. 

According to a report in Quartz, an official from the company who didn't wish to be named said that they had started following the rule since April 2016. 

The news about the adherence by Golden Tobacco Company, which manufacturers Panama and Golden Gold Flake cigarettes, comes even as ITC, the country's biggest cigarette maker, said that it will soon resume production of cigarettes. A move that might be in defiance of the Ministry's order. 

The Health Ministry has directed tobacco companies to cover 85% of their packets with health warnings from April 1, 2016. The order, since then, has prompted several manufacturers of cigarettes and beedis to shut production indefinitely to oppose the move. 

Currently, 40% of the packets are covered with pictorial warnings flagging the risks of smoking. 

While it wasn't clear whether ITC will comply to the new order upon resuming production or not, it said that the decision came in "consequent upon a high court order passed in favour of the company." ITC did not give any more details about the high court order.

Earlier, ITC had said it was not ready to print "excessive" health warnings on its packs, even calling it an "elaborate process for the manufacturers, entailing months of preparation involving substantial cost and effort," the company said in a statement.  

The stoppage of cigarette and beedi manufacturing has been causing a daily loss of about Rs 350 crore to the companies.