AVAILABILITY: Obtaining them in a convenience store is as easy as buying chewing gum
CONTRABAND cigarettes, which are 10 times cheaper than those legally manufactured, continue to flood the market.
The sale of contraband cigarettes has been increasing annually, as smokers seek cheaper alternatives. Realising the high demand, shop owners sell smuggled cigarettes at low prices, ranging from RM3.50 to RM8 for a pack of 20 sticks.
In contrast, the price of legal cigarettes is five times more, with the most popular brand sold at RM17.
Checks by the New Straits Times found that one out of three convenience stores in a neighbourhood in the Klang Valley sold contraband cigarettes.
The boom in the illegal cigarette market is because smokers are seeking ways to replace legal cigarettes, which are becoming more expensive each year.
With the easy access and availability of illicit cigarettes that could be bought for RM3.50, even students can purchase these cigarettes with their pocket money.
Although illicit cigarettes are not sold openly, obtaining them in your nearest convenience store is as easy as buying chewing gum.
Most smokers go to the nearest sundry shop or eateries and ask for their favourite brand of illegal cigarettes.
The New Straits Times team, when trying to engage with business operators who sold illegal cigarettes at their stores, found that most hid their illicit cigarette stocks in the drawer beneath the counter, while a few hid it in biscuit containers or in storerooms at the back of the shop.
They would only produce the contraband cigarette packets when customers requested for them.
Some refused to sell the contraband cigarette to strangers. Locals, who were known to the traders, could buy it openly.
Popular illegal brands of cigarettes include Canyon, L.A Lights, Nusantara Gudang Garam, John, Pine and Surya Gudang Garam.
The NST team watched as a group of secondary school students went into a store and bought three sticks of a legal cigarette and a packet of Nusantara Gudang Garam.
In July last year, the Health Ministry gazetted that the minimum price of a packet of 20 cigarette sticks should be no less than RM10, effective from August 1 this year, under Subregulation 8C of the Control of Tobacco Product Regulations 2004 (Amendment 2015).
However, the sale of cigarettes below the minimum price is rampant nationwide.
NST also found several original and legal cigarette brands being sold below the minimum price in grocery stores. This included brands such as Manchester, Promax and A380.
These brands are not illegal. However, they are sold below the minimum price stated by the ministry, and as such is against the law.
Most of the shop owners would display these cigarettes at standard prices , but would in fact sell them at a lower price.
When asked why business operators promoted these brands, they said it was because these brands were legitimate, and not smuggled in from neighbouring countries.
Some traders said they were unaware that the minimum price
of a packet of cigarettes had increased to RM10 from RM9, at the beginning of the year.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry had identified traders selling contraband or cigarettes below the minimum price.
“The ministry is conducting surveillance and enforcement activities regularly and we hope cigarette sellers and the public at large will respect these regulations as they are meant to reduce affordability to buy cigarettes, especially to teenagers.
“It is an offence to sell below the minimum price and anyone violating this subregulation can be fined up to RM10,000 or face imprisonment for up to two years, or a combination of both,” he told the New Straits Times.
Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry’s recent operation was to charge vendors who were found guilty of selling cigarettes to underage children.
The 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey found that more than 4.9 million Malaysians, aged 15 and above, were smokers, and of the figure, 20.5 per cent smoked daily.
Another report by International Tax and Investment Centre and Oxford Economics in 2013 revealed that Malaysia was among 11 Asian countries with the highest volumes of illicit cigarettes, with more than 25 per cent in 2012.
Malaysia, together with Brunei, Hong Kong and Singapore, are countries with high tobacco taxes. They have lost billions in tax revenue due to trade in contraband cigarettes.
Another survey of illegal cigarettes revealed that Malaysia was among the countries where 50 per cent of smokers smoked illegal cigarettes. It can than be assumed that there are 2.5 million smokers of illicit cigarettes in the nation.
Smokers said easy access and the affordability of contraband cigarettes made it the preferred choice, compared with legally manufactured cigarettes.
Mohd Zulhusni Safei, 32, a factory worker smokes two pack of cigarettes a day.
He buys Dunhill and Nusantara cigarettes, which are smuggled in from Indonesia, from a grocery shop near his factory.
“Going by the number of cigarettes I smoke a day, contraband cigarettes are far more cost efficient as it is cheaper than legal cigarettes.”
Zulhusni, who has been smoking for more than 15 years, said he had no intention to buy legitimate cigarettes in the near future as the prices were prohibitive.
Muhammad Irsyad Othman, 21, has been smoking Manchester cigarettes for almost two years.
He prefers this brand as it is a legitimate cigarette, but much cheaper and tastes almost like the branded legal cigarettes.
“I can buy Manchester cigarettes only in certain convenience stores. Most major convenience stores do not sell this brand. The price is only RM6. I just need to find the right place to buy it as some places offer a lower price,” he said.