Tobacco growers reject tax hike

MARDAN: Anjuman-e-Kashtkaran Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President Niamat Shah Roghani on Monday rejected Rs300 per kg increase in tobacco tax and asked the prime minister to abolish it and bring reforms in the agriculture sector.

“The economy of the country and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa depends on agriculture,” he added while speaking at a meeting of farmers.

Sher Alam Khan, Syed Abdul Shah Bacha, Farman Ali, Noor Rehman, Qamar Zaman advocate and others also addressed the meeting.

Naimat Shah added the agriculture sector of the province was in dire straits due to the wrong policies of rulers.

He added that tobacco was a cash crop of the province but its price was not enough and due to this reason it could not meet its production cost.

The representative added that over 20 million people were directly and indirectly connected with the tobacco crop. He added the government had damaged this crop due to wrong policies.

Naimat Shah added the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had voted for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the hope that it would provide relief to the people and they wanted a change.