Singapore - Singapore is to become the first country to mark every cigarette sold in a drive to distinguish duty-paid cigarettes from their contraband counterparts, news reports said Thursday.

By January 1, each cigarette will have the letters SDPC - standing for Singapore Duty-Paid Cigarettes - printed near the filter end, The Straits Times said. The new, marked packs are to make their debut next month.

The city-state's Tobacco Association estimates that contraband cigarettes make up 20 per cent of the market.

Smugglers profit by evading the 7.04-Singapore-dollar (4.91-US-dollar) tax per packet and selling the contraband packs to smokers at well below official retail prices, customs officials said.

The mark aims at preventing smokers from stuffing smuggled smokes in "legitimate" packs, distinguished by official health warning signs.

From January to July, 2.1 million packets of trafficked cigarettes were seized and 3,231 buyers caught, the report said. The duty and tax evaded amounted to 16.2 million Singapore dollars. The fine for being caught with an illicit smoke amounts to up to 500 Singapore dollars.

Customs officers advised travellers who bring in cigarettes from abroad to declare them for payment of duty and tax and keep the issued receipts.

A British-American Tobacco spokesman said it would be easy enough to print the cigarette paper with the new label and the cost would be "well spent." The company has a 27-per-cent market share.

Philip Morris Singapore and Japan Tobacco International, unhappy with the inroads smugglers made into the market, said they would absorb the cost of printing.

The price of a 20-cigarette pack has been soaring in recent years to almost 12 Singapore dollars, double the amount a decade ago.

The higher duties, as well as smoke-free areas, are aimed at getting smokers to quit. (dpa)