Singapore (VNA) – The illicit vape market in Singapore generated about 10.4 million SGD (8.12 million USD) in revenue between 2024 and 2025, a study has found.
In a report published on May 18, the EU-ASEAN Business Council (EU-ABC) and market research firm Euromonitor International said illicit tobacco sales in Singapore, comprising mainly illicit cigarettes and e-vaporisers, resulted in an estimated 156 million SGD in lost government revenue over the same period.
Chris Humphrey, executive director of EU-ABC, an advocacy organisation focused on promoting EU-ASEAN trade, said the scale of illicit trade in ASEAN is underestimated and growing at “an alarming pace”.
Its impacts are wide-ranging, spanning economic, public health and security challenges. If left unchecked, illicit trade could jeopardise ASEAN’s economic future as a global growth engine, he said.
Singapore Customs and the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) continue to seize significant amounts of illicit tobacco products coming into the country.
In an operation in February, HSA seized an illegal shipment of e-vapes with a street value of more than 1.1 million SGD. It was the largest seizure since September 2025.
Meanwhile, Singapore Customs reported that it seized 3.24 million packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes between January and November 2025, and around the same amount in the first 11 months of 2024.
It was a sharp increase from the roughly two million packets of illicit cigarettes seized annually between 2020 and 2022.
Among ASEAN countries, Singapore recorded one of the lowest illicit cigarette incidences among the six nations, at below 6% in the same period.
Singapore has banned vaping since 2018, with new laws introduced recently to enforce harsher penalties./.
Malaysia cracks down on e-cigarette
A total of 33 people were arrested while over 1.72 million MYR (400,000 USD) worth of electronic cigarette devices and merchandise were seized in a joint operation carried out simultaneously across seven districts in Malaysia’s Sabah state.
