BEIJING -- China has increased taxes on tobacco products, the government said on Saturday.

"The move aims to 'moderately' increase financial revenue, and 'perfect' the taxation mechanism", said the document released on the SAT website.

The tax on cigars rose to 36 percent from 25 percent.

Meanwhile an advalorem tax, based on the real value (less inflation factors) of the product, was introduced on tobacco products for the first time, at 5 percent.

Li Ling, Peking University professor said: "Increasing consumption tax of tobacco can not only help government increase income, but also save millions of lives."

China has the world's largest population of smokers. About 350 million of the country's 1.3 billion citizens are smokers in 2008, and about one million die of tobacco-related diseases each year.