Vape Industry Highlights Plain Packaging Rules in Draft Health Minister Regulation

The Indonesian Personal Vaporizer Association (APVI) has expressed its objection to the Draft Minister of Health Regulation (RPMK), a derivative rule of Government Regulation (PP) Number 28 of 2024 on Health. The regulation is deemed capable of having broad impacts on various aspects of the national economy, including threatening the sustainability of the MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprises) sector. APVI highlighted the policy of standardising plain cigarette packaging, as it relates to the daily operations of MSMEs and state revenue. The draft regulation strictly mandates the use of uniform packaging with a specific standard colour, such as Pantone 448 C, and restricts the inclusion of brand identity and commercial product visualisation. APVI explained that implementing this plain packaging rule risks erasing the value of brand identity, which is a fundamental right and an important economic asset for legal industry players who have made long-term investments. “APVI believes that regulations need to be drafted proportionally and implementatively, considering the balance between public health protection and the sustainability of the national legal industry and the MSMEs within its ecosystem,” APVI wrote in an official statement published on its official Instagram account, Thursday (4/6). Data from the Ministry of MSMEs records that the sector has been a primary pillar of national economic growth, contributing more than 60 percent to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Shocks to MSMEs have the potential to disrupt the Prabowo-Gibran administration’s economic growth target of 8 percent. APVI’s firm stance rejecting plain packaging has been in place for some time. On another occasion, when PP 28/2024 was first enacted, APVI Secretary General Garindra Kartasasmita revealed the association’s concern that implementing the plain packaging policy on alternative tobacco products would only create new problems, including an increase in the circulation and consumption of illegal products among the public. It could even create opportunities for minors to access these products and complicate field supervision. “Plain rules will only add new problems. The majority of G20 countries, developed nations, do not implement plain packaging for alternative tobacco products like electronic cigarettes. These countries only apply written warnings for alternative tobacco products,” Garindra explained. APVI asserted that the risk of losing brand identity has direct implications for the weakening of Intellectual Property Rights (HAKI) protection for domestic products. The loss of visual characteristics on packaging is also projected to open a wide loophole for an increase in the circulation of illegal products and rampant cases of product counterfeiting in the domestic market. When all products have a similar packaging appearance without differentiators, adult consumers will find it very difficult to distinguish between official and illegal products. This condition could significantly reduce state revenue from the excise sector as public consumption shifts to the illegal, non-excise stamp market. Electronic cigarette excise revenue in 2023 was approximately IDR 1.93 trillion. This figure rose significantly in 2024 to around IDR 2.75 trillion, an increase of more than 40 percent. Meanwhile, in 2025, revenue is expected to be around IDR 2.8 trillion. The economic impact of plain packaging is also certain to extend to supporting sectors of the industrial ecosystem, including the creative industry, advertising agencies, packaging printing manufacturers, logistics services, and distribution networks. “In a Public Hearing held by the Ministry of Health in Jakarta in May 2026, several industry associations conveyed various notes and concerns regarding some regulatory substances, particularly those relating to packaging standardisation (plain packaging), the use of the colour Pantone 448 C, and brand identity regulation,” the APVI statement noted. Beyond plain packaging, the Tobacco Products Industry (IHT) is also currently facing various highly restrictive policy discourses, including a ban on additives outlined in a Draft Decree of the Minister of Health as a derivative rule of PP 28/2024, as well as limits on tar and nicotine levels proposed by the study team of the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture. These various regulations are feared to pressure the sustainability of this strategic sector, which significantly contributes to employment and the national economy.