GEG bill: Health PSSC moots delay on punishment against smoking youths

The Parliament Special Select Committee (PSSC) on Health has endorsed the bill to regulate smoking and vaping, including the generational end game (GEG) to ensure that those born after 2007 and later do not take up smoking in the first place.

However, the PSSC is recommending that enforcement of sections of the bill, which would punish those youths for smoking, be deferred to a later date.

This is on Sections 18 and 19 of the bill, which bars youths born after 2007 and beyond from smoking tobacco products or tobacco substitutes.

The PSSC said the enforcement of these two sections should be deferred to a later date, or until a periodic report required by the bill is tabled.

"Until then, implementation (of the GEG) through education is to be continued," the committee said in a report of its review of the bill.

The periodic report, as stipulated under Section 56 of the bill, calls for the first report to be completed before Jan 1, 2025.

The bill states that the periodic report is to gauge the effectiveness of restrictions on smoking and vaping and the sale of tobacco and nicotine-related products.

The Health Ministry had tasked the PSSC with reviewing the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill in June.

The bill is supposed to be debated on Tuesday but has been pushed back to an unspecified date.

Besides delaying enforcement of the GEG aspect of the bill, the PSSC on Health also recommended that punishment under Sections 18 and 19 be lowered from RM500 to RM250.

On the other hand, the PSSC is also recommending the fines against companies who violate rules on registration, advertising, promotion, sales, awards, packaging and labelling - among others - be increased.

As for vaping, the PSSC recommended that the Health Ministry study its use as a means to quit smoking cigarettes, but that any application must be regulated.

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