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DEMTOCO rakes in $1.3B during first half of 2019 – profits increase despite tougher tobacco regulations
According to their interim financial report, for the six-month period which concluded on June 30, last, the Demerara Tobacco Company (DEMTOCO) recorded profits of $1.3 billion.
These sums of money were recorded as pre-tax profits and represented a four percent increase for the corresponding period in 2018. The gross profits during this stage were further recorded at $1.8 billion, reflecting an increase of three percent in the previous year.
According to the tobacco company, these “positive results” were driven by the excellent trade marketing efforts of the staff members, the on-going and positive distribution efforts by their business partner, Edward Beharry, and the disruption in the supply chain in the illicit trade in cigarettes which flowed from the impact and implementation of anti-illicit trade measures by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Administration, distribution and marketing expenses $425 million, which stood at $419 million in 2018, represented a one percent increase. `
In June, after publishing the 2018 annual report, the company which is responsible for providing Guyana’s marketing support to the British American Tobacco Group (BATG) brands had raked in pre-tax profits of some $2.9 billion.
This represented a significant 14.4 percent increase compared to 2017 and the highest growth in profits for the company in the past five years.
Despite the implementation of tougher tobacco regulations set out across the board, the major tobacco company still manages to pull in and increase profits.
That regulation came as the Tobacco Control Act of 2017 was aimed to serve as an international public health treaty and guidance framework, with its agenda to fight against the global tobacco epidemic.
This act further mandated the adoption and implementation of tobacco control policies such as the one hundred percent smoke-free environments in all indoor public, work, public transportation and specified outdoor spaces; a ban on sale of tobacco products to minors; prohibition on vending machine sales; and a ban on the manufacturing, sales of toys and candies in the forms of tobacco products.
The Act provides for a minimum fine of $10,000 for a person who is caught smoking in the aforementioned prohibited spaces. However, imprisonment is not prescribed for the offence.
Even though the Ministry of Public Health has made progress in keeping tobacco companies in line with the new legislations, heavy and consistent enforcement is needed on the parts of the Public Health Ministry, officers from the GRA, the Guyana Police Force (GPF), among others.
It is in this regard that the Ministry of Public Health was granted US$95,000 ($19,833,817) to train enforcement officers and heighten awareness on the Tobacco Court Legislation and the National Tobacco Control Focal Point.
Director of the Chronic Diseases Unit, Doctor Kavita Singh, who serves under the Health Ministry, stated that the grant was provided by the International Union against tuberculosis and lung disease.
According to the Pan-American Health Organization, tobacco is responsible for seven million deaths per death worldwide.
Of that number, 900,000 of them die from diseases related to exposure to tobacco smoke. Taking this into heavy consideration, the Public Health Ministry along with other stakeholders developed a Tobacco Cessation Programme for primary healthcare facilities within the country on September 30.
Tobacco cessation interventions can be extremely effective and providers who perform even brief interventions of ‘advice to quit’ to patients can significantly increase abstinence rates.
Health care providers should present a clear, concise and consistent “quit” message to all their patients who use tobacco.
Effective interventions can be brief (three- ten minutes) or intensive. Brief three-minute interventions advising patients to quit can enhance abstinence rates. Even without a tobacco cessation programme, brief counseling and medications provide as part of ongoing health care can be effective.
Smoking is the most clinically important modifiable cardiovascular risk factor for all patients. Smoking cessation can reduce and prevent many smoking-related health problems.
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