Major news in Malaysia on June 21: Batam-produced fags imported and sold below minimum price

Top news in <The Star> : Batam-produced fags imported and sold below minimum price

Illicit ciggy producers: One of the factories which was inspected by the Starprobe team during its visit to Batam.

BATAM (Indonesia): A factory at the Citra Buana Industrial Park here is manufacturing thousands of illicit cigarettes daily for sale in Malaysia.

Identity unknown: The factory in Batam which did not have any signboard displaying its name.

Starprobe has found that the cigarettes using the Malaysian brand John are brought in via Singapore and sold well below the mandated minimum price of RM7, which explains their popularity.

Illicit ciggy producers: One of the factories which was inspected by the Starprobe team during its visit to Batam.

The factory displays no signboard, only the lot number, unlike two nearby cigarette factories, which produce Luffman and Rock brands mainly for the local market.

An official from the factory producing Luffman cigarettes said the company had also taken orders from Malaysia although its main concentration is the Indonesian market, where its packets of 20 are sold for the equivalent of between RM2 and RM5.