Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu assures tobacco growers to exert pressure on Centre

VIJAYAWADA: Assuring farmers that the issue would be taken up with the Union govt, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday met around 400 Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco farmers who flagged the severe impact of the recent over 70% hike in excise duty on cigarettes and sought an immediate review and rollback.The farmers from Prakasam, Nellore, East Godavari and West Godavari districts told the chief minister that the sharp tax increase already disrupted the tobacco value chain, even ahead of the current marketing season. They said cigarette manufacturers cut back offtake, creating uncertainty in FCV auctions, depressing prices, and triggering growing distress among farmers.Representatives warned that the disproportionate excise hike fuelled a surge in illicit cigarette trade and smuggling, flooding markets with untaxed and unregulated products.

This trend, they said, simultaneously hurt compliant farmers, legal manufacturers, and govt revenues, while strengthening illegal networks.The delegation stressed that cigarettes remain the primary legal outlet for FCV tobacco and that any contraction in the legal cigarette market directly affects auction operations, buyer participation, and rural employment. Excessive taxation, they cautioned, is shrinking the legal market and diverting consumption to illicit channels rather than reducing demand.

Farmers also highlighted Andhra Pradesh’s critical role as a major FCV tobacco-producing state, with lakhs of families dependent on cultivation and allied activities such as curing, grading, transport, warehousing, processing, and exports. Continued market disruption, they warned, could destabilise rural livelihoods across multiple districts.Urging urgent intervention, the farmers appealed to the chief minister to take up the matter with the Union govt and seek a rollback of the cigarette excise hike in the interest of farmer livelihoods, rural employment, state revenue, and the sustainability of the legal tobacco trade.The chief minister assured the delegation that their concerns would be examined seriously and raised with the appropriate authorities at the Centre.Farmers expressed hope that timely intervention would restore market stability, protect incomes, curb illicit trade, and ensure stable revenue flows for both the state and the Centre.