Cigarette prices in Sri Lanka are high. The prices correspond to the cigarette prices in Europe. The imported cigarette pack costs 1200 LRK (approx. 6 €).
Interestingly enough, Sri Lanka was the country where high percentage of population were smokers. However, this changed with new government measures. Smoking is prohibited in public places so if a person would like to have a cigarette, they should go to a closed area and smoke. However, they do not enforce this law upon tourists.
Funnily enough all the more so is that the fine for smoking in public places costs approx. 2000 LRK (approx. 10 EUR) which is not such a high price to pay even for the locals. However, the government does not allow you to pay this fine as a single amount. Instead they break it in many smaller installments, for instance 5 X 200 LRK, that you need to pay in different places in Sri Lanka. Having implemented this system and increased the cigarette prices, the government managed to decrease the smoking population to 3% of the total Sri Lankan population.
