The government has announced plans to use money from "sin taxes" on alcohol and tobacco to fund health programmes and sports activities.

The new Malaysian Health Fund will take over the role played by tobacco companies in sports sponsorship when a ban on cigarette advertising comes into effect next year and will also campaign against smoking, Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said.

Malaysia collects about RM1.5 billion a year from various taxes on tobacco alone, but it has not yet been decided what percentage of the money will go into the new fund, local media reported today.

Thai, Australian models

"We will study the models implemented in Thailand and several states in Australia which have similar schemes," Chua said.

"Thailand is setting aside 2.0 percent of cigarette taxes and this is really a lot of money."

Alcohol is also highly taxed here, where a religious ban on drinking has given rise to the term "sin tax", with two listed breweries paying RM760 million last year. AFP