The Union Budget was presented by the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on July 23. This budget was historic, as it marked the third Modi government and the 18th Lok Sabha's first full budget. And most importantly, Sitharaman's 7th consecutive budget.
No Additional Tax on Tobacco All the focus is largely on what the FM said. But some also focused on the things that were not said by the FM. In her speech or in the documents that have been made available so far, Sitharaman did not mention or invoke an increase in taxes on tobacco or alcohol.
This development has ostensibly raised the expectation of business from tobacco companies, particularly ITC, formerly Indian Tobacco Company. The Kolkata-based company's shares that are listed on the NSE zoomed. The share price even gained over 4 per cent during the budget.
The company churned a gross revenue of about Rs 23,000 crore from the company's cigarette business. This translated to about 46 per cent of its total revenue from all of its products. | Photo: Pexels Although the legacy company has diversified significantly over the past few decades, from luxury hotels to FMCG products, the company has expanded its footprints in different sectors.
Despite this apparent expansion and diversification, the company continues to mint money from the smoke of cigarettes. Not only does the company make a lot of money from the business, but it also has a significant hold in the tobacco market, competing with global brands like Philip Morris I.