KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 3): British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd (BAT) is Bursa Malaysia's top value gainer at the moment, and currently trading at nearly eight-month high.

Shares in the tobacco product company were trading 6.31% or 76 sen higher at RM12.80 per share, giving it a market capitalisation of RM3.66 billion at 10.42am. It saw 1.5 million shares done.

The counter, which opened marginally (0.66%) higher at RM12.12, hit a high of RM13, rising by 7.97% or 94 sen.

It is worth noting that the stock has shot up since Budget 2021 was announced, rising by 24.66% or RM2.52 from the RM10.22 registered at the tabling of the Budget 2021.

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said in his maiden budget speech that the government would be freezing the issuance of new import licences for cigarettes.

At the same time, he announced that there would be the tightening of renewals for cigarette import licences through a review of licence conditions, including the imposition of import quota.

The government would also be looking at limiting transhipments of cigarettes to dedicated ports, as well as imposing a tax on the import of cigarettes with drawback facilities for re-export.

Furthermore, cigarettes would only be allowed to undergo transhipment and re-export via ISO containers. Cigarettes and other tobacco products would be taxable goods in all Duty-Free Islands and any free zones that have been permitted retail sale of duty-free cigarettes.

The government also announced that it would impose excise duty of 10% on devices for all types of electronic and non-electronic cigarettes including vape effective from Jan 1, 2021. Meanwhile, an excise duty at a rate of 40 sen per millilitre would be imposed on liquid used in electronic cigarettes.