The Ministry of Health of Malaysia will continue to carry out enforcement actions against smokers in restaurants and public places! The Minister of Health Datuk Seri Ahan Baba pointed out that after the ministry had taken enforcement actions against smokers on January 1 this year, as of July 31, law enforcement officials had carried out inspections on 13 thousand and 824 restaurants across the country. Smokers issued 13,571 fines and fines amounted to 3.2 million ringgit.
He said that the ministry did not carry out law enforcement due to the fact that no restaurants were open during the time when the government implemented the movement control order on March 18. However, since the government changed the conditional control order on May 4, and then implemented the reinstatement control order, law enforcement officials inspected 16,769 restaurants during this period and issued a total of 1997 fines. The fine amounted to RM 482,450.
Ahan Baba pointed out this in a written answer to a question from the Honest Party Kuala Selangor MP Datuk Seri Zukifili in the House of Commons yesterday. Ahan Baba pointed out that in addition to banning smokers, the ministry also provides smoking cessation services.