The sale is so good that hardly a week had passed and they are back on the display shelves again.

The market for cheap locally produced cigarettes in Sarawak is such an active one that those involved in the trade could not last more than a week of their 'disappearance.'

Consumers are pining for them as they are cheap. But beware, production of these cigarettes are not authorised and they do not carry the security ink-marks and bandrolls made compulsory by Royal Malaysian Customs and Excise since August 1.

Shops in and around major towns in the state continue to offer the cigarettes to selected customers in a hush-hush style, but those in the outskirts are selling the fags in broad daylight.

In Bintulu, sales of such cigarettes are reported to be brisk. So it is too in Sibu, Sri Aman, Betong, and Mukah. In Miri, the village tuckshop is the main supplier.

It is said that in Sarikei, not only are cheap cigarettes flooding the town from Tanjung Manis, but ganja as well.

Customs Act

The most popular cigarette brands are Rave, Kennedy, Memory, L.A, Marco Polo and MU. They are priced between RM1.50 to RM 2.30.

Suppliers claimed that they are locally produced but none are registered with the Confederation of Malaysian Tobacco Manufacturers.

Customs director general Abdul Halil Abdul Mutalib recently warned that under Section 110 of the Customs Act 1967, officers are empowered to conduct searches on anyone suspected to be in possession of smuggled or counterfeit cigarettes.

"If we catch them having cigarettes without the security ink marks or bandrolls on their packets, they are liable to be charged under Section 135 (d)," he said.

Those caught with such fags will be slapped with a RM100 compound fine for each packet in their possession.

Repeat offenders would be charged in court and liable to a maximum fine of RM5,000 or two years jail or both, upon conviction

The distributors and suppliers, meanwhile, are liable to be fined up to 20 times the duty payable, a maximum jail term of three years or both, upon conviction.

JIMMY TEOH is malaysiakini's Sarawak-based stringer.