Dealers, tobacco growers protest imposition of heavy taxes in Shergarh

TAKHTBHAI: The small-scale dealers and the tobacco growers staged a protest rally against the imposition of heavy taxes on the tobacco in Shergarh area on Tuesday.

A large number of tobacco growers from Mardan, Charsadda and Swabi districts gathered at the hujra of Haji Naimatullah and demanded the government to end taxes on Virginia, which, according to them, was levied by the government on the behest of multi-national companies.

They also threaten to stage sit-in outside the Parliament House if the government did not withdraw the proposed heavy taxes on the tobacco.

The office-bearers Mehnatkash Labours Federation, Kissan Board Pakistan, Sarhad Agriculture and Rural Development Organization, Anjuman Tahafuz Haqooq-e-Kashtkaran, Pakistan Tobacco Growers Association, Kashtkar Coordination Council, Tobacco Dealers Association and hundreds of growers attended the meeting.

Speaking at the protest meeting, Rizwanullah, Ibrarullah, Liaqat Yousafzai, Abdul Wasi of Jamaat-e-Ismali, Hussain Ahmad, Anwar Khan, Farhad Ali, Islam Gul, Qamar Khan and others said that the government had imposed Rs500 tax per kilogram on tobacco on the behest of multi-national companies to fleece the small scale dealers and growers of tobacco.

They said that with the imposition of heavy taxes on the tobacco, the multi-national companies would exploit the situation and blackmail the growers and the small dealers.

The speakers demanded the government to withdraw additional advance tax on the tobacco crop and tax the finishing products - cigarette packs and others products.

They alleged that the multi-national companies were involved in creating chaos by rendering thousands of employees jobless while now the farmers were also being subjected to exploitation. Terming levying huge taxes on tobacco as economic murder of growers, the speakers threatened to stage sit-in outside the Parliament House in Islamabad if their demands were not met.