Abdul Rahman Al-Kharb, director general of Customs, said his department has not imposed any increase in tariff on cigarette imports.

Smokers said they have to now pay an extra one riyal for every packet of cigarette. “For a cigarette packet that was sold for SR6, we have to pay now SR7,” one smoker said.

Shop owners said the increase in prices did not prevent any smoker from continuing the bad habit. They said they were expecting the increase a long time ago.

The director of a company that supplies cigarettes told Arab News that the present price increase was linked with the petrol price hike, which has raised shipping charges.

An official at the Charitable Society to Combat Smoking said the meager increase in prices would not encourage smokers to kick the habit.

The Shoura Council had earlier called for imposing fines up to SR300 on those who violate the smoking ban in public places. “The best way to stop smoking is to prevent the sales of cigarettes,” the official said.

Sales bans in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah were successful, he pointed out. Smokers in the Kingdom puff cigarettes worth SR5 billion annually. According to the latest statistics, there are 6.2 million smokers in the country. More than 50 percent of them are young men and women and students.

Smoking is rampant among Saudi women and there are about a million women smokers in the country.