Malaysian E-Vaporizers and Tobacco Alternative Association (Mevta) says it welcomes proposals for the government to tax vaping liquid.

Mevta president Allan Foo said this will help to make up for the loss of government income due to users switching from smoking to vaping.

At present, the government imposes substantial tax on tobacco sales, which contributes to the national coffers.

However, Foo ( photo ) said the taxation should not be imposed on vaping liquid that does not contain nicotine.

"If they want to tax, tax liquid which flavouring has nicotine.

"This is because smokers who are relying on tobacco will switch to them.

"We fully support vaping liquid which contain nicotine to be taxed as replacement the government's loss of income (from the fall in tobacco sales)," he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Foo added that the taxation should not be extended to vaping devices or vaping liquid with no nicotine content.

"This is to encourage access to vaping devices," he said.

He also lauded the cabinet decision today not to ban vaping.

Previously, Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam had announced the government may ban vaping due to health risks posed to users.

However critics say that was a case of double standards, as tobacco cigarettes were more harmful.

Previously, it was reported that vapour from electronic cigarettes could contain up to 15 times more cancer-causing formaldehyde compared to regular cigarettes, based on a research published in the New England Journal of Medicine in January.

However, Public Health England (PHE), an executive agency of the UK health department, in a review published in August reiterated the findings in its 2014 research that concluded vaping is around 95 percent safer than smoking.

It pointed out the damning findings published in NEJM was because the vaping liquid was overheated to levels ‘unpalatable’ to users and vapers do not smoke at such settings.

"While vaping may not be 100 percent safe, most of the chemicals causing smoking-related diseases are absent and the chemicals which are present pose limited danger.

"It has been previously estimated that electronic cigarettes are around 95 percent safer than smoking. This appears to remain a reasonable estimate," it said.