The Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy said it was “shocked and concerned” that the RM141.1 million in revenue collected from taxes on nicotine and non-nicotine vape liquids had not been earmarked for health-related initiatives.

“This move is in direct contradiction with one of the supporting arguments used to justify and enact the tax, and breaks one of the promises made during the finance minister’s (Anwar Ibrahim) budget speech on Feb 23, 2023,” its CEO Azrul Khalib said in a statement.

“In that speech, he pledged to earmark half of the revenue collected for health (purposes). This money is intended to complement existing allocations given to the health ministry, especially in the area of health education and promotion which is severely underfunded.”

In a written reply to Tasek Gelugor MP Wan Saiful Wan Jan on Tuesday, the finance ministry said the total excise tax revenue from vape liquids between 2021 and 2024 amounted to RM141.1 million.

The ministry said of the total, RM82.51 million came from liquids without nicotine, and RM58.55 million from those containing nicotine.

It also said any disbursements from the vape liquid tax revenue, including for administrative and developmental expenditure such as healthcare programmes and projects, must adhere to the national annual budget preparation process.

In his statement, Azrul stressed the need for additional resources to address the consequences of vape deregulation, including health impacts and regulatory challenges.

“Half of RM141.1 million is RM70 million more in funds which could help repair the damage of having nicotine vape completely deregulated for more than a year,” he said.

“This was how the government justified to public health experts, advocates and anti-cancer groups the need to remove nicotine vape from the scheduled list, introducing regulation, instead of outright banning it.”