Tobacco Industry Interference in South Asia - September 2022

Background

This is the fourth of the monthly page series that summarises tobacco industry interference and their activities reported during the previous month in the South Asian region. When relevant, this series will feature the cannabis industry as well, as it is majorly backed by the tobacco industry. South Asia includes eight (8) countries, namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This page is a compilation of the data from the investigative research findings of Centre for Combating Tobacco (CCT), in partnership with the South Asian Regional Consortium Centre for Combating Tobacco (SARC-CCT).

This page will be continuously updated as and when incidents related to the respective month are reported.

The Country Summary

Table 1 summarises tobacco and cannabis industry interference and activities reported according to the country during the month of September 2022.

Table 1: Summary of reported tobacco and cannabis industry interference

Reported Countries	Tobacco Company	Number of Incidents
Afghanistan	-	0
Bangladesh	British American Tobacco (BAT)	2
	Vape traders of Bangladesh	1
	National Association of Small and Cottage Industries of Bangladesh (NASCIB)	1
Bhutan	British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB )	1
India	ITC Limited India	1
Maldives	-	0
Nepal	-	0
Pakistan	-	0
Sri Lanka	-	0

The details of the reported incidents are mentioned below:

Afghanistan

No incidents reported for this month.

Bangladesh

• British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) partnered with Bangladesh sugar and food industries corporation to encourage sugarcane farming. Bangladesh sugar and food industries corporation is a government owned corporation under the Ministry of Industries.

Article 5.3 of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recommends governments not to have any partnership with the tobacco industry as such partnerships generate a conflict of interests.

• Vape traders in Bangladesh organised a live webinar titled ‘Save Vaping, Save Bangladesh’ on 2nd September 2022 giving wide publicity on social media (Image 1). The reports mentioned Delon Human, founder of Tobacco Harm Reduction.net, Schumann Zaman, President of Bangladesh Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Traders Association (BENDSTA), Ishraq Dhaly, Convener of Voice of Vapers Bangladesh, Michael Landl, Director of World Vapers’ Alliance, Mithun Alamgir, Associate Professor at Enam Medical College and John Dunne, Director General of UK Vaping Industry Association as the speakers of the webinar. Tobacco Industry Watch e-newsletter reported that speakers of the webinar requested Ministry of Health to withdraw the proposed ban on vaping products.

Image 1: Vape traders advertising the webinar on social media

• National Association of Small and Cottage Industries of Bangladesh (NASCIB) has sent a letter to the Prime Minister dated 18th September 2022 requesting him to cancel certain proposed amendments to the state tobacco control laws, including banning tobacco advertisements at the point of sale and banning sale of single stick cigarettes. It further mentioned that there will be a possible loss of 1.5 million livelihoods related to the industry with the new amendments. This is a common argument used by the industry against implementation of effective tobacco control policies and actions. We reported in our August Page that NASCIB and Bangladesh Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Traders Association (BENDSTA) collaboratively campaigned against the new tobacco control amendments.
• British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) has sent a letter to Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, dated 12th September 2022, requesting to include cigarettes in the list of duty free products under Bangladesh-Bhutan preferential trade agreement (PTA). Media reported that BATB expect to earn USD 2 million exporting cigarettes to Bhutan from January 2023. However, Tobacco control advocates and organisations including National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh opposed the company’s request and urged to reestablish the waived off 25% tobacco export tax.

Bhutan

• British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB)’s attempt to export cigarettes to Bhutan is mentioned under Bangladesh.

India

• ITC Limited India got involved in the 'Poshan Abhiyaan' initiative celebrating 'Poshan Maah' (National Nutrition Month) “by adopting a 'Help India Eat Better' framework that focuses on a 'Nutrition-First' approach” as reported in media (Image 2). 'Poshan Abhiyaan' is an initiative of Prime Minister “to lay emphasis on nutritional status of adolescent girls, pregnant women, lactating mothers and children from 0-6 years age”.

Tobacco companies are well known for their involvement in (CSI) activities in order to gain leverage in interference in tobacco control actions and policies and also to whitewash their image and reputation.

Image 2: Media reporting that ITC limited India engaged to celebrate National Nutrition Month.

Nepal

No incidents reported for this month.

Maldives

No incidents reported for this month.

Sri Lanka

No incidents reported for this month.

Other Pages in the Series

• Tobacco Industry Interference in South Asia - June 2022
• Tobacco Industry Interference in South Asia - July 2022
• Tobacco Industry Interference in South Asia - August 2022

TobaccoUnmasked Resources

• British American Tobacco (BAT)
• ITC Limited India
• Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC)
• Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)
• FCTC Article 5.3