New Rules Restricting Cigarettes Sales Affect Tobacco Retailers

New Rules Restricting Cigarettes Sales Affect Tobacco Retailers

The Tobacco Retailers’ Association held a media briefing yesterday. During the briefing they raised their voice against the government’s intentions to ban the sale of cigarettes at outlets within 100 metres of schools and places of religious worship.
Nationally, tobacco retailers totalling to 125,000 are in the trade.  Out of the 7,500 eateries, tea shops, supermarkets and grocery stores of varying sizes, which are members of the association, over 95 percent, are situated within 100 metres from schools and places of religious worship. Association Secretary Nilantha Costa guaranteed that the members of the Tobacco Retailers’ Association do not sell cigarettes to minors or allow cigarettes to be smoked within a shop, as prohibited by law.
He further said thus “Our members have said that they would lose 50 percent of their sales if the government goes ahead with this decision”.  He said that  the fall in revenue would not come from the shops not being able to sell cigarettes, since the shops now gain a margin of 2 percent on a cigarette, compared to 15 percent previously, owing to the tax increases, which came into effect late 2016.
“It’s not the revenue we get from selling cigarettes. When a customer usually comes to our shops for tea or to have a meal, they prefer to have a cigarette as well. If we can’t sell cigarettes, these customers would stop frequenting such eateries or shops and we can’t sell our other products,” Association Secretary Costa concluded.