The South African government’s proposed Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill 2004 would have far-reaching and negative impacts not only on the tobacco industry and millions of smokers, but also on social and economic conditions in the country, if adopted without changes, according to British American Tobacco
South Africa (BATSA).
Commenting on the proposed legislation on Monday, BATSA’s Corporate and regulatory affairs director, Simon Millson, said the company would hand in its submission to government in Pretoria later in the day, the final day of the one-month period allotted for public comment. BATSA is the largest manufacturer of cigarettes in South Africa, claiming a market share of over 90%.
The tobacco industry is an important one in South Africa, directly employing some 53 000 people in tobacco growing, the processing of tobacco leaf and the manufacture of tobacco products. There are approximately five-million adult smokers in South Africa.
According to Millson, the new Bill proposes more than 60 changes to current legislation. BATSA’s submission highlighted the consequences of over-regulating the industry, and focused on several areas where BATSA believed the proposed measures were “unnecessarily harsh”.
For example, he noted, the Bill stated that: “No manufacturer, importer, distributor or retailer of tobacco products shall make any financial contribution to any person in respect of an organisation, event, service, physical establishment, programme, project, bursary, scholarship or any other vehicle of any kind”.
If this proposal were accepted, it would effectively ban tobacco companies from funding any corporate social investment initiatives. The ban would also apply to a wide spectrum of companies in the tobacco supply chain, including retailers.
“British American Tobacco South Africa believes that no public health objective can be achieved by not allowing a legal company to meet its social transformation objectives,” said Millson.
“The company has been unwavering in its commitment to the goals of social and economic transformation in South Africa, and has contributed some R36-million to various worthy causes in 2003. Its CSI initiatives focus on black economic empowerment, HIV/Aids, tertiary education, sustainable development and social justice.”
However, BATSA did strongly support the Bill’s move to raise the minimum age for the sale of cigarettes from 16 to 18, for example, as this had been the company’s position for a long time, both locally and globally. It also supported measures to combat the illegal trade of cigarettes, a growing problem in South Africa.
The company believed that a sensible approach to the Bill would be to tidy up the existing legislation where there were loopholes to ensure that it was enforceable, particularly in the area of public smoking.
It welcomed the opportunity to comment on the Bill, as BATSA supported sensible tobacco regulation and remained committed to open and constructive dialogue on the matter. However, the company would have liked the comment period to be longer. This would have given affected stakeholders an opportunity to be properly informed and have more enlightened views.
Millson said the company’s submission was based on its best understanding and interpretation of the clauses and definitions contained in the Bill, “which in many instances were vague, wide and difficult to interpret”.
Examples of some of the measures being proposed in the Bill, he said, were: banning of any tobacco company from supporting CSI — and extending this to include all retailers, wholesalers and importers; no smoking permitted within five metres of a doorway or entrances to a public place, workplace or public conveyance; cigarettes having to be hidden away, under counters in retail outlets; harsh penalties of up to R100 000 for smoking in a public place; no point-of-sale notices in retail outlets; no brand communication whatsoever; the sale of tax- and duty-free tobacco products to be prohibited; and the prohibition or restriction of smoking in specified outdoor public places.
According to BATSA, there were some 630 tobacco farms in South Africa, mostly based in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the North West Province. There were also four co-operatives through which all tobacco leaf was processed and traded. BATSA purchased up to 60% of its tobacco leaf from South Africa farmers. The remainder of the leaf was exported. Retailers, for the most part, sourced their tobacco products from 364 wholesalers that operate in South Africa.
There were over 55 000 formal and 60 000 informal retailers of tobacco products plus some 1,4-million hawkers, many of whom relied on the sale of tobacco products as a part of their income. The government, meanwhile, raised more than R6-billion in excise and VAT duties annually from the sale of cigarettes. -I-Net Bridge