Officials in central China’s Hubei province have recently ordered state employees to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of cigarettes a year to increase the province’s tax revenues. And if they fail to meet the target, or are caught smoking cigarette brands produced from neighboring provinces, the employees could face fines.

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Some would say it’s ridiculous to have a regulation such as that—but it’s China—and we can’t to anything about it. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the edict will be implemented throughout country in the future.

So to avoid further embarrassment and fines, a company has brought out this ultimate cigarette phone. It looks like a cigarette packet but is in fact a real working mobile phone complete with a handy compartment inside to keep your cigarettes safe.

The phone itself runs on dualband GSM, takes microSD cards, plays MP3 and has a color screen and a VGA camera on the side. For $175 you will get a whole luxurious VIP kit with the phone, a pack of cigarettes as well as a lighter.

What do you think of this idea?

[Via 28phone.com]