It’s payback time for sugar millers

KARACHI – The Sindh government has decided to recover outstanding dues of more than Rs 120 million from the influential sugar millers of Sindh and the recovered amount would be utilised for development of the respective districts.
Some 25 sugar mills owe more than Rs 120 million to the provincial government as development cess, and the mills have not paid since 2006, sources in the agriculture department revealed.
The district officers of the revenue department were recently directed to start action for recovering outstanding dues, and the sugar mills have already been issued notices under the Sindh Revenue Act for ensuring early recovery of the outstanding dues.
The provincial government imposes 50 paisas per maund tax on sugar mills in the name of Quality Premium and Sugar Cess after completion of every crushing season between October 15 and April 15.
Half of the tax recovered goes to the growers, and the rest to the provincial government for maintenance of the infrastructure, particularly the roads that are often damaged due to movement of loaded heavy vehicles.
To resolve the issue of taxes, the caretaker provincial government had suspended the payment in 2007 for the next year, and the present provincial government could not play its effective role to resolve the issue.
Sources claimed that the dispute between the provincial government and sugar mill owners has worsened and influential millers are openly refusing to pay their dues, which have increased manifold due to non-payment since 2007.
The prime minister had intervened in the matter in 2009, but the millers did not respond even to his orders.
The Sindh government would initially try to recover the outstanding dues of development cess (Quality Premium) from the millers, and later the outstanding dues of billions of rupees of Sugar Cess.
In 2006-07, the outstanding dues of five sugar mills stood at Rs 80 million – Rs 1.2 million of Najma Sugar Mills, Rs 674,000 of Seeri Sugar Mills, Rs 2.78 million of Tharparkar Sugar Mills, Rs 2.17 million of Tando Mohammad Khan Sugar Mills, and Rs 1.15 million of Rohri Sugar Mills.
In 2007-08, some 20 sugar mills were supposed to clear their outstanding dues worth Rs 41.769 million under the development cess – including Rs 5.39 million of Al Noor Sugar Mills, Rs 2.77 million of Ansari Sugar Mills, Rs 1 million of Army Sugar Mills, Rs 1.96 million of Bawany Sugar Mills, Rs 3.53 million of Dewan Sugar Mills, Rs 1.62 million of Khoski Sugar Mills, Rs 2.41 million of Khairpur Sugar Mills, Rs 1 million of Kiran Sugar Mills, Rs 2.11 million of Larr Sugar Mills, Rs 2.93 million of Matiari Sugar Mills, Rs 314,000 of Najma Sugar Mills, Rs 3.56 million of Shah Murad Sugar Mills, Rs 1.29 million of Tharparkar Sugar Mills, Rs 70,000 of Pangrio Sugar Mills, Rs 2.51 million of Ranipur Sugar Mills, Rs 2.26 million of Sakrand Sugar Mills, and Rs 4.46 million of Seeri Sugar Mills.