The Union Cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday approved the banning of e-cigarettes in the country.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing the ban said that production, manufacturing, import, export, storage, distribution, and transport of e-cigarettes will be banned in the country and an ordinance will be promulgated soon to the effect.

She said that e-cigarettes were initially projected as means to wean away from the practice of smoking. However, reports say that actually e-cigarettes are no longer used as means to wean away from smoking.

Shares of cigarette maker Godfrey Philips surged 9 percent to Rs 1,023.30 per share on BSE after the government-approved ban. Meanwhile, ITC — whose cigarette division contributes 45.8 percent of total revenue — also gained 1.9 percent to Rs 241.75 post the announcement.

Earlier, Voluntary Association of Trade Representatives of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems in India (TRENDS) had rebuffed the claims by various farmers' body and trade unions on the issue of banning e-cigarettes.

First Published:Sept 18, 2019 2:30 PM IST