Ramsammy urges full implementation of Tobacco Control Act

Jun 02, 2023 News

…wants tobacco companies to be taxed more

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s Presidential Commission on the Prevention and Control of the Non communication diseases on Wednesday called for more concerted actions to end the ravages of tobacco.

Dr Leslie Ramsammy

Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, the Chairperson of the Commission in a statement on Wednesday in observance of the United Nations (UN) World No Tobacco Day said: “we have made little to no progress in meeting this agreed to obligation fifteen years after we agreed.” “The world needs to grow more food. How many of us realise that more than 200,000 hectares of land today are utilised globally to cultivate tobacco leaves to produce more than six trillion cigarettes every year? This is land that could be used to increase food security. Articles 17 and 18 of the FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) call on governments around the world to ensure they work collectively to ensure farmers who depend on tobacco cultivation are supported to switch to producing other crops without losing their livelihoods,” the President of the Commission outlined.

He continued: “This is not an obligation only of countries where tobacco is still being cultivated; it is, like climate change, a collective responsibility. The UN must play a bigger role in countries being able to switch from tobacco cultivation to support food security.”

Dr. Ramsammy joined the Ministry of Health (MOH) and others to observe No Tobacco Day and to reaffirm the Commission’s firm stance that Guyana needs to fully implement Guyana’s Tobacco Control Act 2017. According to Dr. Ramsammy, six years after the Act was enacted, Guyana is yet to fully implement the provisions of the Act. As such, the Commission urged the Ministry of Health and other implementing agencies to ensure the full implementation of the Act.

“We are spending millions in the fight against suicide, yet we insist on permitting tobacco to kill people. It is senseless. We even are reluctant to raise taxes on this killer. In our own country, between 2015 and 2020, we introduced new taxes and raised old ones, but we did not increase taxation on tobacco products. The Commission again advocated for an increase in tobacco taxation in Guyana,” he argued. He highlighted that tobacco does not affect our health and kills us because of direct use; it affects our health and well-being because it is also an environmental hazard. “Six trillion cigarettes are produced every year. The tobacco crops that produce enough leaves for this purpose can support the cultivation of 600 million trees that could serve as a carbon sink. Indeed, tobacco use contributes more than 84 million tons of CO2 annually. The tobacco industry depletes the world of more than 30 billion tons of water. Tobacco use leads to more than 800 million kilograms of cigarette butts in trash annually,” Dr. Ramsammy explained.

He added, the health, environmental and climate change threat must be stopped now. In April, local tobacco company Demerara Tobacco Company Limited (DEMTOCO) announced a strong operational performance for the second consecutive year achieving 3.6% volume growth compared to the previous year.

It was reported that the company’s revenue growth increased by 5.8% to $7.7 billion, which is mainly driven by improvements to portfolio mix and volume increases, resulting in a 2.5% increase in earnings per share.