Safety match manufacturers in Tamil Nadu are disappointed that the state government has not banned lighters by classifying them as disposable plastic products. The manufacturers said that although MSME Minister Tha Mo Anbarasan has assured them that steps will be taken to ban Chinese plastic lighters, similar to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, no action has been taken.
The Andaman and Nicobar authorities have imposed a complete ban on the use, storage, import, manufacture, transportation, distribution, sale and disposal of plastic lighters of all sizes through a gazette notification dated September 5, 2019, to reduce environmental pollution.
In Tamil Nadu, the main supplier of matchboxes in the country, the import of plastic lighters has caused huge damage to the match factories. More than 90% of the match manufacturing units in the state are located in Kovilpatti, Tirunelveli, Sattur, Kaveripoompattinam and Gudiyatham. The lighters have eaten up at least 25% of the matchbox demand in the market.
Meanwhile, instead of heeding the manufacturers’ demands to classify lighters as disposable plastic products, the state government has put the onus on the Union government. Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday called on the Union government to declare an immediate ban on lighters and safeguard the livelihoods of the people. He had also made the same demand in September last year.
Lighters are mostly used by smokers. “One lighter is equivalent to 20 match boxes, so it takes a heavy toll on our equipment,” the manufacturers pointed out. They also claimed that the lighters were illegally imported from China using fake invoices. “Examination of some invoices revealed that the lighters were imported as ‘empty lighter boxes’ in order to bypass restrictions on flammable substances and deceive customs officials at the seaports,” said Kathiravan, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Match Manufacturers Association.
VS Sethurathinam, secretary of the National Small Match Manufacturers Association, told TNIE that for the past two years, they have been asking the Tamil Nadu government to pass an executive order to classify plastic lighters under the category of single-use plastics or disposable plastics, considering their adverse impact on the environment. He said that since Tamil Nadu has 90% of the match factories in the country, the ban on plastic lighters will save the industry from decline.
In December last year, a delegation of safe match factory owners visited Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and took her up on the issue. DMK Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchy Siva raised their concerns in the assembly while Kovilpatti MLA Kadambur C Raju twice appealed in support of safe match factories in the assembly. “It is disappointing that despite repeated appeals and dialogue with him, MSME Minister Anbarasan has not even considered issuing an order to ban these lighters on the grounds that they are single-use plastics,” Sethurathinam said. Repeated attempts to contact MSME Minister Anbarasan proved futile.
