The tug of war between a handful of farmers and the Pakistan Tobacco Board is likely to end in the coming few days as farmers are realizing that they are playing in the hands of `vested interests’. This was stated by Fazal Ilahi, Member Pakistan Tobacco Board and representative of growers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while talking to media persons here on Thursday. Fazal Ilahi said that some misguided farmers unknowingly had become a tool of others’ ambitions. He said that now there was realization among the growers that ultimately they will be the ones to suffer should the dangerous trend of wrong projections about tobacco price were not stopped forthwith. He said that some cigarette manufacturers are supporting farmers on the issue of higher prices but that is understandable as local industry is highly unregulated and tax evasion is rampant. It is pertinent to mention here PTB has fixed a price of Rs 117 per kg but that price was rejected by farmers’ representatives. Only a couple of weeks ago a joint meeting of Pakistan Tobacco Board, representatives of agriculture department and representatives of tobacco farmers’ association was held at Agriculture Information Centre in Peshawar in which some Farmers’ representatives rejected Rs 117 kg tobacco price that had been fixed by Pakistan Tobacco Board and demanded a minimum rate of Rs 200 /kg. He said that the meeting also demanded the federal government to give control of Rs 60 billion excise duty to the provincial agriculture department. The meeting, through a joint resolution, also requested the provincial government to pass a resolution in the provincial assembly in this regard. Fazal Ilahi said the Pakistan Tobacco Board working under the Ministry of Commerce, has written to Ministry of Food Security and Research not to interfere in the process of working out the cost of production of tobacco crop in the area of Mardan and Swabi as it was the sole prerogative of Pakistan Tobacco Board. It may be recalled here PTB Ordinance ,1968 clearly gives the responsibility of price fixing to PTB that has already announced indicative minimum prices for tobacco based on Cost of Production exercise carried out in November last year. Experts maintain Ministry of Food & Security clearly lacks clarity on its mandate and that’s why it often resorts to such controversies. He said that experts believe increase in tobacco price would lead to squeezing local farmers out of global competition especially after giving MFN status to India,factory owners will import cheaper tobacco from India As Pakistan is moving swiftly to declare India as Most Favorite Nation (MFN) by the year-end, the Commerce Ministry has issued the Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) to implement the cabinet decision to switch to the Negative List. He said that arbitrary increase in tobacco price would also threaten government revenue from cigarette excise as proposed leaf price revision will, in fact impact consumer cigarette pricing same way and magnitude as recently adopted excise increase which is likely to further the cause of cheap illicit offerings in the market.
