Pakistan: KP Growers Reject Virginia Tobacco Price for Next Season

Source from:  Business Recorder  12/06/2013

The growers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have rejected the price of Virginia tobacco at Rs 159.75 per kilogram, fixed by the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) for next harvesting season. They demanded to review the prices and fix it according to cost of production and other processing and storage expenses. The growers further demanded to include tobacco in the Pakistan Trade Corporation list as a crop like cotton, rice, wheat and sugar cane.

"Tobacco is a cash crop of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, mostly being cultivated in Buner, Swabi, Mardan, Charssada and Manshera areas with a large variety of Virginia tobacco, and generated Rs 72 billion for government on head of excise duty during last financial period," said Arif Ali Khan, President of Kashtakhar Co-ordination Committee, while talking to this scribe here on Thursday.

Similarly, he said KP had also accumulated Rs 600 million on head of tobacco cess during 2012-13. Despite the generation of huge amount, he said that tobacco is yet to be declared as crop, due to which multi-national companies are exploiting the rights of poor growers.

"We want to fix tobacco at Rs 220 per kilogram against currently announced price," Arif Khan said. He further added that the PTB also announced the profit for growers only three percent, which is very scanty.

Arif mentioned that Pakistan Tobacco Board announced the Minimum Indicative Price (MIP) for tobacco crop, fixed in Khyber Paktunkhwa for 2014, during a meeting of Price and Grade Revision Committee.

The Kashtakhar Co-ordination Council General Secretary, Liaqat Yousafzai said that they had earlier rejected minimum indicative price of tobacco, during a survey of special committee in plain areas (Swabi, Charsadda and Mardan). The committee, he said had fixed Rs 137 per kilogram for Charssada, Rs 126 for Mardan and Rs 149 for Swabi per kilogram, including 11 percent inflation and three percent of profit. According to which, the price was fixed at Rs 159.75 per kilogram for plain areas of tobacco cultivation in KP.

Similarly, he said that the growers demanded to fix Rs 25,000 as for expenses of tobacco burner and rent charge of storage godowns. But, he said the PTB had announced only Rs 5,000 for these purpose. Enditem