The New Zealand’s government has said cigarettes buying would be banned , most especially the young ones aged 14 and under.

New Zealand’s government revealed its plans, disclosed It is part of the country’s strategy to have fewer than 5% of people smoking by 2025.

The minimum age to buy cigarettes would keep rising year after year.

However, in theory at least, 65 years after the law takes effect, shoppers could still buy cigarettes – that it is if they could prove they were at least 80 years old.

Officials hope that New Zealanders will stop lighting up before then.

Other parts of the plan include allowing only the sale of tobacco products with very low nicotine levels and slashing the number of stores that can sell them. The changes would be brought in over time to help retailers adjust.

Similarly, the UK government has a goal for England to become smoke-free by 2030, part of which could include raising the minimum age to buy cigarettes from 18 to 21.

The country’s Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall, who is spearheading the plan, said her work at a public hospital in Wellington involved telling several smokers they had developed cancer.

She said: ‘You meet, every day, someone facing the misery caused by tobacco. The most horrible ways people die. Being short of breath, caused by tobacco.’

Smoking rates have steadily fallen in New Zealand for years, with only about 11% of adults now smoking and 9% smoking every day.

The daily rate among Indigenous Maori remains much higher at 22%. Under the government’s plan, a taskforce would be created to help reduce smoking among the country’s indigenous population.

Big tax increases have already been imposed on cigarettes in recent years and some question why they are not hiked even higher. metro.co.uk reports

But Dr Verrall explained the government doesn’t think any additional increases will have an impact.

She added: ‘It’s really hard to quit and we feel if we did that, we’d be punishing those people who are addicted to cigarettes even more.’

Dr Verrall added that tax measures tend to place a higher burden on lower-income people, who are more likely to smoke.

She said that tobacco smoking is far more harmful and remains a leading cause of preventable deaths, killing up to 5,000 people each year.

‘We think vaping’s a really appropriate quit tool,’ she added.

The sale of vaping products is already restricted to those aged 18 and over in New Zealand and vaping is banned in schools.

Verrall said there was some evidence of a rise in youth vaping, a trend she is following ‘really closely’.

While public health experts have generally welcomed the New Zealand plan, not everybody is happy.

Sunny Kaushal chairs the Dairy and Business Owners Group, which represents nearly 5,000 corner stores, often called dairies in New Zealand, and petrol stations.

He said: ‘We all want a smoke-free New Zealand. But this is going to hugely impact small businesses. It should not be done so it is destroying dairies, lives and families in the process. It’s not the way.’

Kaushal stated the tax increases on tobacco had already created a black market that was being utilised by gangs, and the problem would only get worse.

He noted smoking was already in its twilight in New Zealand and would die away of its own accord.

Complaining that stakeholders had ‘not been consulted’, he said the move is ‘being driven by academics’.