Muscat – The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion (MoCIIP) has announced that the mandatory Omani Standard for plain packing of tobacco products will be effective from April next year.

‘The ministry requests tobacco companies and local compliance firms to follow Ministerial Decision No 2023/67, which requires implementing Omani Standard OS1655 for plain packaging of tobacco products. This becomes mandatory from April 4, 2024’, MoCIIP said in a statement.

The ministry issued a decision on Omani Standard OS 1655:2022 on plain packaging of tobacco products in March this year, and deemed it a binding Omani standard specification.

The move was appreciated by the World Health Organization (WHO) office for the Eastern Mediterranean, describing Oman’s action as ‘significant and pioneering’.

In September, the Ministry of Health received the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs Award for its tobacco control efforts. Plain packaging bans use of logos, colours, brand images or any kind of publicity on tobacco packets.

With the new decision, at least 65% of the packaging will now include a public health warning, picture and a message to quit, while the rest will have the brand name. The brand name will be in a standardised font and colour, based on regulations of the MoCIIP decision, the ministry made it clear.

According to WHO, tobacco packaging is a mobile billboard promoting consumption of tobacco products.

‘If you strip back the decoration, gloss and misleading elements of tobacco packaging, you are left with little more than a box of deadly, addictive products that kill approximately 6mn people a year and harm the health of many more.’