JAKARTA ~ Indonesia produced 230.3 billion cigarettes in 2006, up 4.5 percent from the previous year, reports said.

Official data indicated the country’s income from cigarette sales tax in 2006 hit Rp38.965 trillion (US$4.29 million), reports said.

Some 56 percent of the cigarettes produced were of the factory-made “kretek” type. About 35 percent were hand-made kreteks.

Kreteks are made locally from a mix of tobacco and cloves and smoked by up to 70 percent of the country’s male population.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most profitable tobacco markets. Smoking accounts for at least 57,000 deaths per year in the country of 220 million people.