Indonesia raised the minimum age limit for purchasing cigarettes to 21 from 18 as part of a series of changes to health regulations intended to curb the deadly habit in a country with one of the world's highest smoking rates.

In a government regulation signed by President Joko Widodo last week, Indonesia raised the minimum age for people wanting to buy cigarettes to 21 and banned the sale of a single cigarette, a cheap alternative common in local street stores.

A number of smokers in the capital, like 40-year-old office worker Kadar Guntur and 48-year-old shopkeeper Yasrip have on Wednesday (July 31) expressed support for the regulation, and emphasized the need for "clear sanctions" so that "school children are not free to smoke."

Indonesia's health ministry said in a 2023 survey that 7.4% of smokers out of 70 million smokers in the country are between the ages of 10 to 18, with 15-19 being the age group with the most amount of smokers. The new provisions on advertising will come into force in two years.

Cheap and widespread, Indonesia authorities have also tried to curb smoking by raising excise rates on tobacco products for almost every year in the past few years, including by 10% this year.