Provinces told to check cane buying through middleman

The government has directed the provinces to invoke Sugarcane Act 1950 for punitive action against mills involved in sugarcane buying at weighbridges through middleman, outside mills'' gate.
The direction issued from the Advisor to Prime Minister, Dr Salman Shah''s office, indicated that sugarcane buying outside the mills'' gate at weighbridges through middlemen was continuing, and the provinces should take effective measures to check this illegal activity.
Sources told Business Recorder on Friday that provinces have been directed that they should ensure procurement of sugarcane only at the mills gates against proper indent.
The federal government has also asked the provinces that they should direct the Cane Commissioners that they should take all possible measures to forestall the possibility of sugarcane buying through middlemen and weighbridges generally remains unrecorded and thereby provides an opening for sugar mills to suppress/conceal their production. Investigations conducted by the federal government have confirmed that a large number of mills, which are big names in sugar industry, buy sugarcane outside their mills through middlemen and then crush it without mentioning it in the record.
According to government surveys, this unlawful activity has become a popular tactic for mill owners to show considerably less production and evade taxes.
The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) had recently submitted its report to the Advisor to Prime Minister, Dr Salman Shah, wherein it confirmed that a large number of sugar mill owners were buying sugarcane through middlemen and depriving the national exchequer of taxes of billion of rupees.
The CBR indicated that the sugar industry was massively involved in misreporting and concealment of production, besides underpricing of stocks to evade huge amounts of general sales tax (GST).
It had identified risk areas, which it termed as loopholes, to cheat the government and had demanded of the central government that it should work out some mechanism to check unregistered buying of sugarcane by the mill owners and plug the loophole to ensure due taxes from the sugar industry.