In 24 hours, FDA seized cigarettes worth Rs 30 crore from the city

FDA seized cigarattes worth Rs 273 crore

In a major crackdown, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration seized cigarettes worth Rs 30 crore from across the city this Monday.

The action was taken following Central government’s imposition of new rule pertaining to the size of pictorial health warnings on the cigarette packets.

According to the latest directives, 85 per cent display area of a cigarette packet should be covered with health warning comprising of pictorial graphic and text. However, the impounded lot’s pictorial warnings covered only 45 per cent the surface area of the packet.

The same day, the authorities conducted similar raids in other cities of the state too and seized cigarettes worth Rs 273 crore in total.

In a series of coordinated raids across Maharashtra, cigarettes worth Rs 103 crore was impounded from Pune, while the haul in Konkan and Nagpur amounted to Rs 30 each.