LAHORE: Sugar industry in Punjab has decried purchase of sugarcane by unauthorised middlemen, blaming inaction on part of department concerned, while cane commissioner accused mills of involvement in purchasing sugarcane from agents.
Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), Punjab Zone on Wednesday in a letter to cane commissioner claimed that time and again the body had raised concerns about the unauthorised buying of sugarcane from different areas of Punjab by agents and middlemen.
“We have also been requesting the higher authorities in Punjab government, including yourself (cane commissioner) to take action against illegal purchase by unauthorised agents/middlemen,” the letter reads. “We have also been taking up this issue in various meetings from time to time with chief secretary and secretary food.”
The letter said that the authorities promised they would resolve the matter each time, but the issue received little attention.
PSMA (Punjab Zone) Chairman called on Secretary Food, Punjab, twice in the recent past and discussed this serious issue personally. “All these efforts indicate that sugar mills have always made best efforts to eliminate unauthorised purchasing agents/middlemen,” it added.
PSMA also expressed astonishment over a recent observation of cane commissioner in which he purportedly said, according to sugar industry body, “This is being done, prima facie, with the connivance of the sugar mills staff as sugarcane is supplied by such middlemen in large quantities as compared to the normal supplies of the genuine growers. Such large supplies cannot be made without the active collaboration of the mills staff/management.”
PSMA insisted that Punjab sugar mills did not purchase sugarcane from unauthorised middlemen. Sugarcane purchased by unauthorised agents/middlemen was being transported to other provinces and being heavily utilised. This has created a shortage of sugarcane for Punjab mills, thus increasing prices of the commodity.
“We have already indicated that higher prices of sugarcane by any reason result in high price of sugar,” PSMA observed in the letter.
Responding to PSMA, Punjab Cane Commissioner Zaman Wattoo said, “I say it with 100 percent certainty that the sugar mills in Punjab are purchasing sugarcane from the middlemen. In order to conceal this illegal purchase, the sugar mills are not providing the cane commissioner’s office with grower-wise details of purchase of sugarcane, despite clear-cut order under Rule 16(10) of the Sugar Factories (Control) Rules, 1950.” The commissioner said that by doing so, the mills were defying law and challenging the writ of the state.
He said that through such concealment of data, growers were later denied payments of their dues and were embroiled in endless litigation.
“I once again call upon the sugar mills to respect law and provide data to my office so that middlemen are identified through crosscheck from girdawari / crop-reporting,” he observed.
Regarding movement of sugarcane to Sindh by the growers, the commissioner said, “We cannot ban it as Constitution of Pakistan guarantees inter-provincial trade under Article 151.”
Pointing out another problem, Wattoo said that many sugar mills were refusing to buy certain varieties of sugarcane despite the fact that those varieties were not banned.
“Under the law, sugar mills cannot refuse such varieties which have not been banned by the cane commissioner. Acreage of such varieties is very large, particularly in the district of Rahimyar Khan,” he added.
Raising a question, the commissioner asked where the growers should take their crop in case mills in Punjab refused to buy their produce. “As custodian of the rights of growers, I have got to take every step to save them from financial losses,” the cane commissioner concluded.
