The Punjab Health Department has banned the sale of loose cigarettes (as single sticks) and loose tobacco, becoming the first State to do so.
In a notification issued on Tuesday, the State government said the ban had been issued as the sale is in violation of Section 7 of the COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products, Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution Act, 2003).
Section 7 of COTPA prohibits any trade or commerce in cigarettes or any other tobacco products unless every package of cigarettes or any other tobacco products sold, supplied or distributed carries specified warning including pictorial warning.
Since loose cigarettes are affordable and do not carry a pictorial or a written warning, these will not be permitted to be sold.
