Pakistan: Government Asked to Help Foil Conspiracy against Tobacco Sector

Source from:  The International News 08/20/2012

PESHAWAR: The growers and officials have urged the government to take legal and administrative steps to foil what they consider a conspiracy against the tobacco sector. They said certain vested interest, including some in the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB), are hatching a conspiracy to pave the way for the import of tobacco from India at the expense of the local crop. Muhammad Zahir Khan, managing director, Walton Tobacco Company and senior vice-president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Agriculture, said their province was home to over 60 percent of the total area under tobacco cultivation and accounted for around 80 per cent of the country’s total tobacco production, but its growers have little say in decision-making for the well-being of the tobacco sector. Referring to the latest report of the Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC), he said major tobacco-cultivation districts were Swabi 38 percent, Mardan 25 percent, Charsadda 15 percent, Buner 6 percent, Mansehra 5 percent and others 11 percent, but the government was not taking appropriate steps to ensure the benefit of the trickle down of the crop to the growers and those working as farm labourers. The province is expecting bumper crop estimated at 76 million kilogram but the companies have already started making various pretexts to buy the crop on lower rates from the growers while the government is also working on a plan to discourage tobacco in the name of alternate livelihood crop. It would rob the province of over Rs70 billion annual income, he added. Niamat Shah Roghani, senior vice-president Anjuman Kashtkaran Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the government was giving least priority to the tobacco sector, particularly the growers. Both Muhammad Zahir Khan and Niamat Shah Roghani were critical of the government policies towards tobacco sector and said the growers were not provided any subsidy on fertilisers and pesticides. They said it has raised the cost of production of the crop rendering it incompetitive in the region as both India and Bangladesh were giving many incentives to the growers and the rate of their produce was comparatively low. They said the prices of tobacco produced in India were low and some vested interests on PTB's Board of Directors were hatching conspiracy to pave the way for import of Indian tobacco. They said after China, Brazil and United States, India largely dominated tobacco production in the world and those with vested interest who belonged to provinces that didn’t produce any tobacco were working on a plan to import tobacco from India for companies operating in Pakistan. Akbar Ali Marwat, PTB's deputy secretary (admin), when contacted for comments, said the federal government should make judicial use of the Clause-H of the Pakistan Tobacco Board Ordinance and nominate relevant members for the Board of Directors. He said the law gave the federal government unlimited powers to put members of its choice on the PTB board but it should use these powers for the betterment of the sector. The official said the 16-member Board of Directors represented tobacco growers, dealers, cigarette manufactures and provincial governments but some members belonged to the provinces growing no tobacco irked the genuine growers and the government should look into it. Meanwhile, various tobacco farmers associations have also raised reservations on the recommendations of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, saying the body appears to have gone off-track in its recommendations by proposing that the tobacco workers be provided alternative crops for agriculture. According to a growers' body representative, Rustam Khan Swati, they have written a letter to minister for finance, chairman PTB, chairman of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, minister for commerce and minister for food and security research have clearly spelled out these apprehensions. The letter showed apprehension that the key facilitators of the working group seemed to be seeking to promote a tobacco farming reduction strategy by mandating programmes that artificially force alternative livelihoods to tobacco farmers and reducing the area assigned for tobacco farming. They also showed reservations on the artificially forcing alternative livelihoods to tobacco farmers in Pakistan and maintained that they should not be prohibited from tobacco farming. "As long as there is a demand for the crop," said the letter, adding, any evaluation of financially viable alternative livelihoods should weigh the potential impact of the alternatives and must be based on facts and evidence. Enditem