Only licensed retailers and wholesale distributors will have the permission to sell cigarettes as of December 22 and violators will be prosecuted, announced the Tobacco Planning and Supervision Center affiliated with the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade. According to the center, a governmental plan to regulate the issuance of permits for cigarette distributors was started two years ago, Mehr News Agency reported. So far, more than 700 provincial and 120 national wholesale cigarette distribution licenses have been issued.
