Tobacco manufacturer Godfrey Phillips is expecting a "moderate to no tax increase" in the upcoming budget. The company said that while "things are looking pretty good", the future of the business would only depend on February 1 when finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the budget for FY21.

Godfrey Phillips' shares have risen 11 percent this month and more than 80 percent in the last six months. But, this good run could easily turn to nervousness due to tax uncertainty.

“Cess is goods and services tax (GST) subject. So that is not going to be subject to the budget on February 1. The only red flag is the possibility of increasing the excise component. I don’t think we are particularly worried about this financial year because we are on a very strong wicket. Our profit after tax (PAT) for the first six months has grown by 80 percent. That is pretty healthy," said Bhisham Wadhera, CEO of Godfrey Phillips India.

Speaking about domestic market share, he mentioned, “If you include Marlboro, we are at about 13.5 percent right now and the bulk of the growth has come from the new markets that we have opened in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. So we have been attacking the ITC bastions pretty strongly. So that is paying off handsomely.”

First Published:Jan 15, 2020 11:50 AM IST