KP growers reject taxes on tobacco

SWABI: Reacting to the imposition of new taxes on tobacco, the growers on Saturday urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to take back the decision or else they would launch a strong protest movement.

Ittehad-e-Kashtkaran, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leaders, including Liaqat Khan Yousafzai, Arif Ali Khan, Iqbal Khan, Asfandiyar Khan and others said that the new taxes would cripple the poor tobacco farmers as the expenditure on farming had already increased manifold owing to the prevailing skyrocketing inflation in the country.

Arif Ali Khan said that the KP government had imposed Rs50 per kilogram on each person dealing in tobacco and Rs75 per kg on the export of tobacco from the province, terming it a sheer injustice with the farmers.

He said the decision would inflict heavy losses on the tobacco growers as the companies, exporters and local dealers would purchase less tobacco or stop purchasing the produce due to huge taxes, which will lead to destroying the sector.

“The 700 percent increase in taxes will destroy the sector. The farmers can’t afford to pay heavy taxes and will ultimately stop growing tobacco,” Liaqat Yousafzai said, adding that the tobacco crop was the only cash crop of the province and over 1.2 million people in the province depended on it.

He urged the provincial government to reverse the decision and save the farmers from an embarrassing situation.

He said that over 75,000 farmers were involved in tobacco cultivation and they were fetching huge foreign exchange to the country.

In the current budget of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, tax on tobacco had been increased by 700 percent with the ratio of Rs6 per kg to Rs50 per kg. After this increase, the cigarette companies would reduce their demand for the next year and not buy tobacco from farmers.