PESHAWAR: Kisan Board Pakistan on Thursday claimed that tobacco growers in the province were facing a potential loss of Rs47 billion this year due to “unfair policies” of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the imposition of advance tax.
Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vice-president of Kisan Board Pakistan, Rizwanullah Khan, said that around 88 million kilograms of tobacco currently have no buyers, creating serious concerns for farmers. He added that tobacco production in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stood at around 100 million kilograms, while companies including Philip Morris and Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) have purchased only 32 million kilograms.
Rizwanullah alleged that the federal government and the FBR were imposing an advance tax of Rs390 per kilogram on tobacco exports, terming the measure as unjust and harmful to the industry.
He said the tobacco sector was already moving towards losses due to previous outstanding issues and what he called poor policies of the government and the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB). He added that growers were facing difficulties and had neither received relief in the federal budget nor seen their concerns addressed.
“The government is demanding taxes from us, but no relief is being provided in return. If the government expects taxes, it should also provide support to the industry,” he said. The Kisan Board representative claimed that the federal government collected around Rs400 billion annually in revenue from the tobacco industry, while nearly 100,000 people were associated with the sector. He urged the government to introduce farmer-friendly policies and prevent the industry from collapsing.
He also demanded that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should provide relief to the tobacco sector in the upcoming provincial budget after the 18th Amendment, saying that neither the PTB nor the federal and provincial governments were listening to their concerns.
He expressed concern over existing tobacco stocks and said the closure of the Pak-Afghan border had further multiplied difficulties for farmers involved in tobacco and other agricultural products.Rizwanullah appealed to government and opposition parliamentary leaders to raise the issue of tobacco growers and the industry during budget discussions.
