Harsher tobacco control law set to take effect

Nearly a year after receiving the draft rules of the amended Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act, the law ministry has recently vetted the draft rules and sent them back to the health ministry to be finalised, reports UNB.

"Recently, the law ministry sent the rules of amended tobacco control act back to the health ministry giving some suggestions and asked the concerned ministry to finalise it," said M Amin Ul Ahsan, coordinator of the National Tobacco Control Cell under the health ministry.

He said the final rules of the act will be sent to the law ministry soon for a gazette notification to be issued to implement the amended 'Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act' introduced in 2013.

The law ministry suggested the concerned ministry take opinions from experts and the authorities concerned to incorporate pictorial warnings on cigarette packets before finalising the rules. It also asked the health ministry to give a specific deadline to the tobacco companies to introduce pictorial warnings on harmful effects of tobacco products, official sources said.

The draft rules instruct the tobacco companies to incorporate pictorial warnings covering 50 percent of the area of the packaging of the tobacco products within nine months from the date of gazette notification of the rules.

But the law ministry has requested the health ministry to allow the tobacco companies 18 months for this,from the date of gazette notification.