Article 4 of the Saudi Anti-Smoking Law

This article addresses the financial side of combating smoking and provides that fees are to be increased on tobacco and its derivatives, and that this is to be done by decision of the Council of Ministers.

Two points follow from this text:

• Increasing fees is one of the financial tools of the law in combating smoking, as it raises the cost for the consumer.
• The body competent to decide the increase is the Council of Ministers, so under this article it does not come from any other body.

The article does not specify the rate or amount of the increase, the type of fees concerned, or its timing; all of that is left to the Council of Ministers' decision. For that reason the current amount of the fees cannot be known from this text alone, and one must refer to the decisions issued on the matter.

The tobacco derivatives covered by the fees are understood in light of the definition in Article 2, which includes cigarettes, cigars, jurak, tombak, mu'assel and any product containing tobacco. This article is part of a group of provisions regulating tobacco before it reaches the consumer, together with Article 3, which prohibits growing and manufacturing it in the Kingdom, and Article 5, which requires explanatory and warning information on the package.