Islamabad:
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on National Food Safety on Friday emphasized the importance of examining the causes of the sugar price increase and exploring possible measures for market stabilization and consumer relief.
The committee met here with Syed Tariq Hussain in the chair.
Committee member Zulfiqar Ali raised the issue of sugar prices and called on the chairman to include it in the next meet the agenda. He said the industry harvested RS300 billion in excess while consumers suffered losses.
“Farmers and consumers have suffered loss. This case should be included in the upcoming [meeting’s] Agenda, “Ali said. Later, the committee decided to include the sugar price problem on the agenda for his next meeting.
The committee discussed the questions facing tobacco growers. The committee was informed that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officials had been appointed to 23 tobacco companies to monitor tobacco. The chairman emphasized the importance of increasing tobacco cultivation.
“If we look at the region, the world has gone far ahead at the political level,” Tariq told the committee. “The world has come a long way in the use of drones and other technologies in the agricultural sector,” he said. “We need support at political level.”
The committee was informed that general VAT (GST) was imposed on cigarettes, not on tobacco. It was also informed that approx. RS949 million assigned to research and development remains untapped due to the vacant director position in Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB).
The chairman instructed the Ministry to accelerate the appointment of all vacancies on PTB and its related committee so that the pending development and reform initiatives could move forward without delay.
The meeting was updated on key areas, including the current tobacco taxation policy, the framework for the collection and utilization of the Cess Fund for the past 10 years, PTB’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and the potential introduction of a crop insurance scheme for tobacco producers.
The committee was informed that PTB had compiled committees to oversee cess regulation, CSR programs and development activities. However, the committee raised concerns about the exclusion of tobacco growers from these organs.
In response, the Committee imposed the Ministry to ensure that representatives of tobacco growers are included in all relevant committees, which emphasized that meaningful reform and relief measures could not succeed without their direct involvement.
The committee also held a detailed discussion on reports of donkey meat sold in Islamabad, which expressed serious concern about public health risks and regulatory negligence.
The Ministry was asked to address the question with the relevant authority and report back at the next meeting.
During a presentation of Croplife Pakistan, the committee was informed that the organization’s mission was to support farmers in producing enough food to meet the needs of a growing population through access to innovative agricultural technologies. (With input from app)
