REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Companies are obliged to imprint a health warning sticker on every cigarette pack it distributes they Indonesia, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono noted here on Monday.

In 2014, the Indonesian government had started to implement Government Regulation Number 109 and Health Minister Regulation Number 28 on the presence of a health warning sticker on every cigarette pack distributed in Indonesia.

"It is obligatory for both the local and foreign companies marketing their products in Indonesia," emphasized Agung.

Agung pointed out that the government had given a three-month time period to the cigarette companies to adopt the new regulation and withdraw cigarette packs without warning stickers that had been distributed in the market.

"Our intention is not to kill the cigarette industry. The warning sticker aims to protect young Indonesians from the negative effects of smoking," added Agung.

A research revealed that Indonesian smokers consumed at least 302 billion cigarettes in 2013, thereby placing Indonesia on the top of the Southeast Asian smokers' list.

The research results of the Demographic Institute of the University of Indonesia's Economic Faculty indicated that cigarette consumption in Indonesia accounted for 46.16 percent of the population.

Active smokers of both genders in Indonesia increased by 35 percent or about 61.4 million in 2013 as compared to the previous year, the research data showed.

It was revealed that deaths caused by smoking-related diseases in 2010 reached 190,260 or about 12.7 percent of all deaths in the same year.

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