• March 29, 2024

2020 ban on cigarettes proposed

 2020 ban on cigarettes proposed

The government of Sri Lanka will ban the use of tobacco products from 2020, according to a Daily News story quoting President Maithripala Sirisena.

Addressing a gathering in Kurunegala on April 5, the president said the people of Kurunegala had spent Rs18 billion on alcohol and Rs3.5 billion on cigarettes respectively, though it wasn’t clear from the story over what period these amounts had been spent.

The April 5 gathering was the fifth meeting organized by the Presidential Task Force for Drugs and Prevention conducted with the assistance of the Kurunegala District Secretariat.

The President said the government had promised to end the period of bad governance that had prevailed in Sri Lanka for many decades and to bring about orderly governance that would ensure accountability and transparency.

He said there was a need to educate the people in order to wean them away from smoking and alcohol.

“We hope to ban cigarettes from 2020,” he added.