Kailash Kumar
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Government to initiate legal action against sugar tycoons after Eid
AAMIR SAEED
May 21, 2020
ISLAMABAD: The government is going to initiate legal action against Pakistan’s major sugar mills after Eid Al-Fitr, officials said on Thursday.
“With the approval of the prime minister, we will initiate criminal proceedings against them after Eid,” Shehzad Akbar, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s aide on accountability, said at press conference held to present the findings of the Sugar Forensic Commission, which investigated a sugar crisis that gripped the country earlier this year.
“Sugar mill owners have cheated farmers and evaded taxes, as the relevant state institutions failed to check them,” Akbar said, while sharing the main points of the commission’s report.
The commission’s investigators audited six major sugar groups which hold 51 percent of Pakistan’s production to examine how they were exploiting farmers, tricking the state and selling their commodity at exorbitant rates in the local market.
“A process of reforms will be initiated in relevant institutions along with devising a mechanism to see as to how we can make recoveries (from the mills’ owners),” Akbar said.
“In 2017-18, sugar mills determined the cost of production at Rs51 per kilo whereas the report gave an estimate of Rs38 instead,” Akbar said, “In 2018-19, sugar mills calculated cost price at Rs52.60 while the report gave an estimate of Rs40.”
According to the report, the mills have “for years” under invoiced sales and kept “double account books” to evade taxes.
Akbar said the sugar commission has named a number of influential people who, according to its findings, benefited from sugar export subsidies and profited from the commodity’s rising prices in the local market. On its list are: the prime minister’s close aide and former secretary general of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jahangir Khan Tareen; lawmaker Moonis Elahi from Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q); son of the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif; and brother of Economic Affairs Minister Khusro Bakhtiar.
The sugar mills, Akbar said, also exploited the farmers by using informal receipts.
“It was ultimately the farmer who was crushed because there was no official record. The mill owners showed the price of production as more than the support price which meant that farmers earned less.”
Sugar cane is a popular crop in Pakistan for which the government sets procurement prices. The industry is further protected by a 40 percent import tariff.
https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1678006/pakistan
AAMIR SAEED
May 21, 2020
ISLAMABAD: The government is going to initiate legal action against Pakistan’s major sugar mills after Eid Al-Fitr, officials said on Thursday.
“With the approval of the prime minister, we will initiate criminal proceedings against them after Eid,” Shehzad Akbar, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s aide on accountability, said at press conference held to present the findings of the Sugar Forensic Commission, which investigated a sugar crisis that gripped the country earlier this year.
“Sugar mill owners have cheated farmers and evaded taxes, as the relevant state institutions failed to check them,” Akbar said, while sharing the main points of the commission’s report.
The commission’s investigators audited six major sugar groups which hold 51 percent of Pakistan’s production to examine how they were exploiting farmers, tricking the state and selling their commodity at exorbitant rates in the local market.
“A process of reforms will be initiated in relevant institutions along with devising a mechanism to see as to how we can make recoveries (from the mills’ owners),” Akbar said.
“In 2017-18, sugar mills determined the cost of production at Rs51 per kilo whereas the report gave an estimate of Rs38 instead,” Akbar said, “In 2018-19, sugar mills calculated cost price at Rs52.60 while the report gave an estimate of Rs40.”
According to the report, the mills have “for years” under invoiced sales and kept “double account books” to evade taxes.
Akbar said the sugar commission has named a number of influential people who, according to its findings, benefited from sugar export subsidies and profited from the commodity’s rising prices in the local market. On its list are: the prime minister’s close aide and former secretary general of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jahangir Khan Tareen; lawmaker Moonis Elahi from Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q); son of the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif; and brother of Economic Affairs Minister Khusro Bakhtiar.
The sugar mills, Akbar said, also exploited the farmers by using informal receipts.
“It was ultimately the farmer who was crushed because there was no official record. The mill owners showed the price of production as more than the support price which meant that farmers earned less.”
Sugar cane is a popular crop in Pakistan for which the government sets procurement prices. The industry is further protected by a 40 percent import tariff.
https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1678006/pakistan
