Chennai, June 1 (IANS) The Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) party on Wednesday urged the central government to ban import of semi-finished lighters from China to save the matches industry in Tamil Nadu.

According to MNM, ready to use lighters are being imported from China under semi finished products and are being retailed in the market.

While imports of ready to use lighters are banned by India, they are still being imported as semi finished products thereby resulting in huge revenue for the central government, MNM said.

While the match sticks are environment friendly, the lighters are not, and further the imported lighters will affect the employment of several men and women.