All India Beedi Industry Federation, a body of over 240 manufacturers controlling over two-third of total branded beedi production, said the loss due to stopping production will be around Rs 200 crore daily.
"We are supporting the cigarette industry on this issue. The shutting down of beedi production meant for the domestic market will lead to a daily loss of Rs 200 crore," AIBIF Member Arjun Khanna told PTI.
"As per the notification, beedis cannot be produced without this new enhanced pictorial warning from April 1, 2016... It is not possible to print the warnings...As the curved area and wrapping paper edges prevent printing on a reasonably large area of the curved surface," AIBIF said.
The practical impossibility implies that the beedi industry cannot implement the new warning rules in its present form, the federation added.
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The overall beedi industry in India is estimated to be around Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 7,500 crore, with members of AIBIF members contributing around Rs 5,000 crore.
Main beedi manufacturers include Pataka Industries, Prabhudas Kishoredas Tobacco Products and Desai Brothers.
AIBIF further said this being a traditional industry it cannot be closed down overnight and "the government has been indifferent to the plight of the beedi industry, despite repeated representations from various stakeholders".
It claimed that "all the workers, mainly women in rural areas, engaged by the Industry have been rendered jobless overnight".
Last week, major cigarettes manufactures including ITC, Godfrey Philips and VST have decided to shut all their factories and stop manufacturing in the wake of larger pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the packaging space coming into force.
They had insisted that there was ambiguity on the policy related to revision of Graphic Health Warnings on tobacco product packs as mandated by the health ministry.