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INDONESIA

The Indonesian government has passed a decree, which gives more time to cigarette manu-facturers to comply with the restrictions imposed on tar and nicotine levels. The deadline has been extended from two-years to seven years for machine-rolled cigarettes, and from five years to 10 years for hand-rolled cigarettes.

According to a presi-dential decree passed in October 1999, tar level in one cigarette should not exceed by 20 milligrams and nicotine level should not be more than 1.5 milligrams.

The extension comes as a huge relief for the manufacturers of kretek or clove cigarettes, who had opposed the decree. According to them it favored the manufacturers of white-cigarettes. The level of tar and nicotine is more in clove cigarettes, as compared to white cigarettes. They had also complained that many small manufacturers could not afford to install the new equipment required to reduce the nicotine and tar levels.

The decree also eases restrictions imposed on cigarette advertising in the electronic media.

The clove-cigarette industry is the second most important industry of Indo-nesia in terms of revenue generation. It also provides employment for around 10 million people.

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