Malaysia’s finance minister, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, has announced an excise tax on all tobacco products and electronic/vaping products.
The excise tax will be a 10% rate of the value of the products and will be imposed on all types of e- cigarettes as well as regular cigarettes.
The new tax would be in place on cigarettes and tobacco products in all retail zones and outlets that sell duty-free cigarettes as of January 2021. New restrictions on cigarette licensing can also be expected and the issuance of new cigarette licenses will be frozen in the meantime.
The minister also said that new restrictions on the transshipment of cigarette will also be set in place. “We will impose taxes on drawbacks on all imported cigarettes for the purpose of transshipment and re-exports,” he said.