SINGAPORE is about to become the first country in the world to brand every single cigarette stick sold here with a mark.

It is a move to distinguish the duty-paid cigarette from its contraband counterpart, which the Tobacco Association here estimates make up 20 per cent of the market.

The marking means smokers can no longer pass off contraband cigarettes as the real deal by stuffing them into legitimate cigarette packs - distinguished now by health warnings printed on it.

Each stick will have 'SDPC', standing for Singapore Duty-Paid Cigarettes, near the filter end. New packs bearing such cigarettes will surface from next month.

By Jan 1, every cigarette sold here will bear the mark, said Singapore Customs on Wednesday.

Smugglers profit by evading tax of $7.04 per packet and selling the contraband packs to smokers here at well below what bona fide retailers charge.

From January to July this year, 2.1 million packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes, involving $16.2 million duty and tax evaded, were seized with 3,231 buyers caught.

To quell demand, a fine of $500 a pack was introduced for those caught in selected hot spots, such as Geylang, last October. On July 15, when this was extended islandwide, 284 contraband buyers were nabbed in the first two weeks.

Certis Cisco officers have been engaged since last year to beef up enforcement. Singapore Customs did not give detail on how officers will actually target offenders to spot the new mark on the sticks but said they will identify themselves with warrant cards.

Singapore Customs said cigarette retailers will carry posters informing the public of the new stick marks.

Tobacco companies, unhappy with the inroads smugglers are making into their market, are glad to bear the cost of having such specially labelled cigarettes.

The price of a 20-stick pack of premium cigarettes have been spiralling upwards over recent years because of higher duties. It costs close to $12 now, from just $5.80 nearly a decade ago.

The higher duties, as well as other measures such as smoke-free areas, are intended to get smokers to stub out. Singapore Customs also warned travellers who bring in cigarettes from abroad to declare them for payment of duty as well as the Goods and Services Tax. They should keep the issued receipts in case enforcement officers check on them.