Kazakhstan will sell no cigarettes at night and on weekends

Kazakhstan is going to toughen its rules of wholesale and retail sales of tobacco, Interfax-Kazakhstan reports. In particular, according to the draft law On state regulation of production and sales of tobacco products developed by Kazakhstan Finance Ministry, it is suggested to uphold the ban of sales of cigarettes to minor by increasing the age limit for cigarettes buyers from 18 to 21. It is also suggested to limit the sales to daytime - from 11:00 a.m. to 09:00 p.m. - and completely ban the sales on holidays and weekends. Besides, the draft law suggests to sell tobacco products only in special stores. Meanwhile, the Ministry also suggests to introduce licensing of import, wholesale and retail sales of tobacco goods that will give necessary leverages for influencing dishonest tobacco market players that violate the rules, especially the one banning sales of tobacco to children, by suspension of licenses and their further cancellation in case of repeated violations. “The costs that the market players will incur in case of adoption of the draft law will include expense to purchase rights (licenses) for import, wholesale and retail sales of tobacco goods, payment of the license fees." Besides, sellers will have to regularly report to the authorities on the amount of tobacco goods sold. While producers will have to install "measuring devices providing automatic real-time transfer of information on the number of produced tobacco goods to the authorized body via automatic information system and equipment on toxicological control over safety of tobacco goods,” the document states.