Govt Accused of Doing Nothing for Tobacco Growers

Source from:  Staff Report 07/02/2004

PESHAWAR: Tobacco growers demanded that tobacco, which generates 25 percent of Pakistan's total excise duty, should be included in the Pakistan Trade Corporation as a crop like cotton, rice, wheat and sugar cane. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the President of the Central Organising Committee of Ittehad-e-Kashtkaran, Arif Ali Khan and member Professor Munawar Khan said that the government had done nothing for tobacco growers even though tobacco contributed around Rs 35 billion annually to the national exchequer in taxes. They accused the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) of working for the interest of cigarette companies instead of the growers. "The objective of PTB's establishment was to protect the interests of the growers," said Arif Ali Khan. “However, it is working solely for the interest of cigarette companies." The speakers at the press conference said that the two major cigarette companies purchased half of their supplies through established purchasing centres and the rest through local agents at low prices. "In this way these companies not only evade taxes but also fleece the growers by purchasing tobacco at lower prices," they said. "PTB doesn't do anything to regulate this but actually assists these companies in the exploitation of the growers." Besides two major companies, 14 small cigarette companies also purchased tobacco through their agents at low prices and made very late payments. The speakers said that the central and the provincial governments were not imposing checks and balances on these tobacco companies to prevent them from exploiting growers.