From: Ceylon Today
By Mario Andree
The 100-year-old Ceylon Tobacco Company will be closing down two of its leaf depots as the company faces difficulties due to the steep increase in cigarette prices which drastically reduced consumption. The company issuing a statement said that in the first phase CTC will wind down operations in Anuradhapura and Sigiriya starting with the closure of the two leaf depots.
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It highlighted that tobacco consumers had deviated from legal cigarettes to smuggled cigarettes and beedi, defeating the government’s major objectives of increasing taxes on tobacco such as improving public health and increasing revenue.
