Tobacco Commission remits K65m dividend to govt

Tobacco Commission (TC) says it remitted 20 percent or K65 million of its recorded K325 million surplus, making it one of the few parastatals that are satisfying the legal requirement to remit surplus.

TC chief executive officer Joseph Chidanti Malunga said this on Monday in Lilongwe in his presentation to Vice-President Saulos Chilima on the progress of tobacco industry reforms.

The audited financial statements for the years ended 30th June, 2021 and 2020 show the commission’s revenue stood at K3.5 billion and K3.6 billion, respectively.

The commission’s financial statements for the year ended June 2021 show that the institution’s declared profits were largely due to savings from operating costs.

Chidanti Malunga attributed this financial performance largely to prudent utilisation of resources.

“As part of our ongoing reforms, we introduced and implemented sound financial controls which helped us to cut out expenditure in non-priority areas; hence, the huge savings,” he said.

TC operates without government subvention and its revenue is generated from statutory levies.

The presentation covered reforms undertaken from March 2021 to present.

The presentation covered five reform areas, namely the strengthening of the regulatory framework; enhancement of tobacco production and marketing integrity; the improvement of stakeholder understanding of the commission’s mandate and roles; improvement of financial sustainability; and the strengthening of institutional capacity. Meanwhile, the TC, says it is geared to increasing the country’s annual tobacco production volumes by 2023.