BAT to Invest US$600, 000 in Machinery

Source from:  Zambia News Agency (zm) Lusaka ZANA 05/21/2004

The British American Tobacco (BAT) Zambia has projected an investment of US$600,000 worth of machinery to improve the operations and quality of tobacco. BAT Managing Director Keith Gretton told Commerce, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister, Geoffrey Samukonga who toured the factory today that the company has been frequently decommissioning and commissioning machinery in a bid to improve on quality. [img border=0 hspace="4" vspace="4" align="left" src=http://www.tobaccochina.com/english/picture/0521.jpg] Mr. Gretton said the tobacco business environment in 2004 has improved significantly in Zambia following government’s move to reduce taxes from 125 per cent last year to 115 per cent and the curbing of tobacco smuggling. He disclosed that the volumes of production have grown to over 20 per cent as compared to the same period last year. "As a consequence, excise and tax payments to government are very much higher than last year, and that is after the welcome excise reduction, which has enabled us to fight more competitively against illegal imports," he said. He commended government for fighting smuggling but noted that the threat of smuggled cigarettes still remained especially on inferior products. Mr. Gretton further stated that this year’s exports from the Lusaka BAT have also increased as compared to the first four months of 2003. And Mr. Gretton pointed out that 95 per cent of the tobacco used by BAT was bought from local farmers. Meanwhile, Mr. Samukonga said government was pleased with the operations of BAT Zambia because the company has improved the tobacco industry in the country. He said BAT’s investment in the industry was a satisfactory indication of what the new deal government would want to promote in Zambia. He assured that government would continue to work towards completely eradicating the scourge of smuggling tobacco. Enditem