ISLAMABAD, June 1: Sugar millers have asked the government for re-enforcement of Gur Control Act 1948 — a colonial law for harassing poor sugarcane farmers — besides levy of 15pc general sales tax (GST) on commercial production of gur in the next budget.

Informed sources told Dawn on Thursday that the sugar millers had also asked the government to levy 15pc regulatory duty on export of gur to Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics (CARs).

The enactment of the colonial law would affect more than 850,000 sugarcane farmers in the country. The number of sugar mills is 78 mainly owned by influential industrial families.

The sources said that the law authorised the relevant government officials to stop sugarcane farmers from making gur and forced them to sell their produce to a specific factory.

It empowers the officials to raid villages indulging in the making of gur and confiscate their mills and gurmaking equipment as a punishment.

The sources said that though the law had lost ground as the sugarcane zoning system for sugar mills was abolished in 1972 but the sugar millers have been colluding with officials under any (or none) legal provision to defeat their historical rival. The sugar industry is known to be an ardent exploiter of farmers.

The sugar millers have been playing with these hapless, disorganised and voiceless farmers in the name of market rate. When farmers produce enough sugarcane, they are punished as the mysterious market rate of their produce falls down to untenably low levels, the sources said.

A leading gur producer on the condition of anonymity told Dawn that if the sugar mills industry statistics were to be believed, of every 100 rupees that a person paid to buy sugar in Pakistan Rs43 reached to the farmer. While of every

100 rupees spent on buying gur Rs67 went to the farmer, who has converted his sugarcane into gur.

During the current year’s crisis, the sugar industry paid farmers the highest ever price of Rs63 per 40 kg of sugarcane in Punjab and Rs70 in Sindh. The gur makers, however, paid farmers Rs100 per 40 kg. Both of them are selling their products at almost the same price.

The law should be abolished and district governments should be directed not to misuse laws, such as Section 144, to support the sugar industry, the gur-maker demanded.

He said the government should direct Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority to support gur-makers and help improve this industry by offering easy loans to promote gur and shaker making in the country.

“No taxes on this industry should be levied with the purpose of curtailing its operation and limiting its market. If sugar industry can be offered rebate on exports despite the fact that it produces sugar at higher than international price, then how can as small enterprises be stopped through tax regimes that is thriving and qualifying purely on principles of market economy without any government support,” he remarked.

A strong gur and shakar making industry would break the monopoly of sugar mills cartel over the sweetener market besides boosting rural economy and creating jobs for rural youth and help in alleviating poverty, the gur-maker opined.