From: FirstPost
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Two years after India banned foreign direct investment in cigarette manufacturing, the government is now mulling a new curb on the import of cigarettes, according to a report in the Economic Times. What’s more, there may also be a ban on the participation of foreign players in the wholesale trade of cigarettes and tobacco, compounding the woes of our puffing population.
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While smokers may lose out if this proposal does come to pass, the two major beneficiaries will be domestic cigarette manufacturers like ITC — which has a stranglehold on the country’s cigarette market — and black marketeers.
