It’s not an outright ban, but it might as well be one for vapers in Kuala Lumpur: KL City Hall (DBKL) has announced that it will not issue any business licenses to operators of vape shops in the nation’s capital.
DBKL’s Licensing and Petty Traders Department director Ibrahim Yussof said his unit had stopped accepting applications from retailers dealing in e-cigarette paraphernalia and supplies, making it effectively illegal to open a vape shop in KL.
“DBKL will not accept any application from vape traders and will not be issuing licenses. One trader’s application recently got rejected,” Ibrahim told The Malaysian Insider‘s P Ravin over WhatsApp.
In fact, Ibrahim told The Star‘s Wong Pek Mei that DBKL had never issued business licenses to vape retail outlets in the city.
“We never issued any licenses for vape businesses before and we will not issue any.”
DBKL senior management is now in talks on how to address the issue of KL’s existing vape shops.
By January 1, Johor and Kelantan will impose a sales ban on vaping products, spurred in Johor by Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar’s royal decree on the issue, and by the Kelantan state government’s consensus to order all related businesses to shutter.
