KUALA LUMPUR: From today, those selling loose cigarettes and small packets will face a fine of up to RM10,000 or two years’ jail. In issuing the warning, Health Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Lee Kah Choon said retailers should abide by the ministry’s ban and stop selling loose cigarettes and packets containing fewer than 14 sticks of cigarettes.

Those caught doing so can be charged under the Control of Tobacco Products Regulations 2004.

"Health enforcement officers will nab those who flout the law," he told the New Straits Times.

The Government banned the sale of loose cigarettes and packets containing fewer than 14 sticks on Thursday.

A random check in the city showed that many retailers had removed even the 14-stick packets from the shelves.

There are an estimated 3.6 million smokers in the country with about 10,000 dying annually of diseases linked to smoking.

Asked about the move to put pictorial warnings of people with lung-related diseases on cigarette packets, Lee said it could only be enforced when the Control of Tobacco Products Act came into force.