Health Minister Rajitha Senarathen said that he, with the intention of reducing smoking would present a Cabinet Memorandum next week seeking the approval to draft rules to ban the sale of a single cigarette.

The minister added that he would take steps to increase the tax on tobacco upto 90 percent and introduce the plain cigarette packet to reduce smoking.

According to him, the farmers who will move away from cultivating tobacco will be found alternative crops with the assistance of World Bank and the World Health Organization.