Tobacco Farmers Registration Validity Extended to 3 Years

New Delhi, Apr 22 (PTI) Giving a big relief to tobacco growers, the government on Tuesday said the registration certificate or licence of tobacco farmers will now be valid for three years instead of one year currently.

This increase in the licence period from one to three years will help around 83,500 farmers of the country covering around 91,000 barns in renewing their registrations/licences across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Odisha.

"This measure will save the time of the farmers' for renewing their registrations/licences every year to plan their logistics and finance to take up cultivation for three years ahead," the commerce ministry said in a statement.

India is the second largest producer and fourth largest exporter of unmanufactured tobacco in the world, in value terms, during 2023.


In 2024-25, the exports contributed about USD 2 billion (Rs 16,728 crore) to the Indian exchequer.

Virginia tobacco is regulated in India under Tobacco Board Act, 1975.

As per the Act, every grower intending to take up cultivation of Virginia tobacco has to obtain certificate of registration as a grower and a license for operation of a barn.

Accordingly, the Tobacco Board is facilitating the registration /licensing on annual basis.

"Now, the government has considered to increase the periodicity of Certificate of Registration as Virginia tobacco grower and Licence for operation of a barn to 3 years as a part of ease of doing business, in order to reduce the burden of mandatory yearly renewal of Certificate of Registration as Virginia tobacco grower and licence for operation of a barn," it said.