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September 18, 2003
Struggling for rights
Muqaddam Khan reports on the problems tobacco growers are facing in the Frontier province and the lengths they will go to to be heard
The stage was set for further clashes, and a possible loss of life on the night of August 25.The protesting tobacco growers had refused to end the blockade of the GT road until their demands were met. All traffic between Peshawar and Islamabad/Rawalpindi remained suspended for more than three hours.
The SP Nowshera was quite perturbed as he waited for a green signal from the IGP, NWFP. Soon, the government and the Pakistan Tobacco Board displayed shrewdness, and assured the protesting tobacco growers that all the surplus tobacco would be purchased from them. The protesters returned to their homes and the seven-day strike of the poverty-stricken growers came to an end.
Tobacco is cultivated by the peasants of Buner, Charsadda, Mardan, Mansehra, Chakdara/Swat, and Swabi. It has a great economic significance; it is a big source of income/revenue for the government, employment, and foreign exchange. This crop has been grown by farmers since the British Raj, and it has remained a fundamental source of their livelihood, especially in Swabi. However, the future of the tobacco farmers seems extremely dark.
There are two main kinds of tobacco: White Patta, which is also called Mulki tobacco, and the other which is Virginia tobacco. The former is widely used in snuff (naswar) and hukah. It has also been used in some varieties of cigarettes as it contains more nicotine than Virginia, while Virginia is mainly utilized by the cigarette manufacturers.
In the past, the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) and large and small cigarette manufacturers, dealers, agents, and employees of major companies made profits at the cost of impoverished growers. The sheer buying power of major companies and small cigarette manufacturers helped them to manipulate prices of different grades of tobacco, and influenced all the decision makers. Besides, they also used different tactics in maneuvering rates.
Before the beginning of the purchasing season of 2003, the companies and PTB portrayed about a 20 per cent increase in the tobacco production. According to the announced quota for 2003, the companies’ requirements were: flue-cured Virginia 37.182 million kg; dark air-cured 1.030 million kg; WP 1.665 million kg and burley 2.055 million kg. The flue-cured requirements were 36.98 per cent lower and WP 46.96 per cent lower respectively as compared to the 2002 requirements, while the quota of burley had increased 16.84 per cent.
The growers claim they failed to sell their tobacco because cigarette manufacturers had expressed no readiness to pick up all tobacco products from them.
However, representatives of the PTB say otherwise. Commenting on the situation, Mr Abid, a representative of PTB said, “before the cultivation of tobacco the board had informed the growers that they should cultivate the crop according to the requirements of the companies. Those who had not executed agreements with the companies should have avoided growing tobacco. Despite our statement, they produced 13 million kilos of surplus tobacco. The PTB pressurized the both large and small cigarette manufacturing companies to pick up the surplus tobacco from the growers at average prices.”
As a result, growers staged a hunger-strike in Kernel Sher Chowk on August 19, and vowed to continue their struggle until their problems were resolved and demands met by the tobacco companies/small cigarette manufactures and PTB.
A new union, Ittehad-i-Kashthkaran Swabi (IKS), came into being. Arif Ali Khan and Hidayat Ali were nominated as president and general secretary respectively. When the provincial food minister, Fazal Rabbani, visited the hunger-strike camp on August 21, they presented the charter of demand to him which included: the companies and small cigarette manufactures should pick up all their tobacco not as surplus tobacco, and uphold the tobacco marketing law MLO-487, withdrawal of Cess Development Tax, abolition of PTB, stoppage of downgrading, inclusion of tobacco in the Pakistan Trade Corporation list like rice and cotton. But the negotiations could not yield any result because the minister failed to assure the growers that all their tobacco would be purchased by the companies not as surplus tobacco.
The following day, the growers started torching their tobacco at Kernel Sher Chowk, and held a big meeting in protest on August 25. The growers decided to march towards Tarbela Dam on their way to Islamabad to apprise president Musharraf of their problems.
On their way to Tarbela Dam, Arif told The Review, “We observed a hunger strike for six days, but the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government, PTB, companies, and local administration remained dormant. Now we are on our way to meet the president because only he can resolve our problems.”
“If a permanent solution to our problems is not reached, we will cultivate poppy again. We will not pay our electricity bills as Tarbela Dam is located in Swabi,” he said, adding that for cotton and rice the State Bank has declared rates, but the State Bank and the Export Promotion Bureau have done nothing to make tobacco an exportable commodity. It contributes Rs 22 billion to the national exchequers through various taxes each year.
“In the fiscal year 2001-02, the total tobacco Cess was Rs 73 billion while in 2002-03, it stood at Rs 68 million. If Punjab can spend sugarcane Cess on the welfare of sugarcane growers, why have the tobacco growers of NWFP been deprived of their rights?” questioned the provincial general secretary of Anjuman-i-Kashthkaran, Ismail Jan Khan.
The growers’ problem is that they feel that the PTB is very accommodating to the companies and the small cigarette manufacturers. They all seem to be agreed on one point: purchasing the crop at the lowest possible prices.
The prices of pesticides, fertilizers, tractor plough rates, labourers, and the cost of wood and grading has increased considerably. To protect their crop from severe attacks of pests, and various diseases, the growers use sprays almost four to six times.
In short, the growers are fast heading towards bankruptcy and insolvency. If the government wants a viable solution to the peasants’ problems, the implementation of tobacco marketing law MLO-487, a check on the companies and small cigarette manufacturers, and making tobacco crop an exportable commodity are very vital.
Buyers’ ways
There are are two major buyers of tobacco in Pakistan; and they purchase the bulk of tobacco each year. However, both companies vehemently deny their powerful monopoly, citing the presence of small cigarette manufactures in Mardan division and Azad Kashmir.
Both companies are said to have adopted numerous tactics for the protection of their monetary interests, and for “dodging” the poor growers’ demands. Whenever tobacco production is slashed, they surge the prices at the peak of the purchasing season. The purpose behind this strategy is to motivate the growers to grow more tobacco in the following years. This policy has proven to be very productive in the past.
In contrast, whenever there is a bumper crop, they make poor excuses of surplus tobacco, and then purchase it at rock-bottom prices.
To further push down the prices, the leaf managers at these companies indulge in down grading the tobacco. Besides, the companies have appointed agents who establish purchasing points to purchase tobacco for their respective buyers.
“The leaf managers frequently reject the bales of tobacco and direct the dealers and designated agents to wait for its purchase outside the company premises at extremely low prices. Later, the same rejected bales find their way back to the companies through “back doors”, said Rehman Sher of Anjuman-i-Kashthkaran.
The IKS president Arif said: “It is the duty of the PTB members to work for the implementation of the tobacco marketing law. PTB secretary, Khan Faraz, has not visited the tobacco purchasing centres and the deputed staff is bribed by the companies. Those who sit in air-conditioned rooms will do nothing for the growers. This is the reason we want the reconstitution of the PTB.”
PTB officials meanwhile argue that they are making efforts. One of its representatives, Mr Abid, says that the board has “made vehement efforts for the implementation of tobacco marketing Law –MLO 487 and tobacco marketing rules 1993.”
According to companies’ officials some cigarette manufactures in Mardan and Azad Kashmir were involved in the production of counterfeit brands, the bulk of which have also reached the Pakistani market from China.
Looking at the prevailing situation, the government ought to mould a policy under which no one indulges in evading taxes, and there is also need to take steps for protection of growers’ rights and implementation of MLO-487, which reads: ‘The weighted average price of tobacco for the crop of any year to be paid by the tobacco company to the tobacco growers, shall not be lowered than the weighted average price to them for the crop of the immediately preceding year’. — M.K.
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