Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has started taking action under Land Revenue Act against Cherat and Lucky cements for recovery of arrears in head of manufacturing licenses and marking fee, sources told Business Recorder on Thursday.
"Yes, we had approached the District Revenue Officers of both district of Nowshera and Lakki Marvat for the recovery of arrears under the Land Revenue Act from M/S Cherat Cement Limited and M/S Lucky Cement Limited," confirmed an official of the authority requesting not be named.
PSQCA is a national standards body working under the Ministry of Science and Technology. As per the given mandate under the PSQCA Act, 1996, the authority is responsible to formulate national standards and enforce it through Compulsory Certification Marks Scheme. Under the law, the manufacturers are required to get a formal license from the authority after payment of the prescribed fee.
The manufacturers besides obtaining the license, are also bound to pay marking fee, which in case of cement is 0.1 per cent of the ex-factory price of the annual production cost. PSQCA Act, 1996 prohibits the manufacturing, stocking and selling of the cement without obtaining the manufacturing licence and payment of marking fee and the two cement manufacturing units are defaulters due to non-payment of the marking fee to the government of Pakistan and lacked manufacturing licenses by the authority.
The official said notices in this regard have been distributed amongst the cement dealers in Hayatabad, Peshawar city and Jamrud Road, asking them not sell the cement of the aforesaid companies and warning of possible action in case they violate the law. These measures, he said, are preliminary and in case the unit still remain adamant against the obtaining of the license, the authority would get halted the production of the units.
According to the law, the minimum fine for the violator is Rs 50, 000 and imprisonment for a year. The authority had directed the District Co-ordination Officers of Abbotabad, Nowshera and Shangla for getting halted the marketing of the cement of these units and had issued notices in all 24 districts of NWFP and Rawalpindi , Jehlum and Attock districts of Punjab-the marketing areas.
The authority, he said, has also directed District Police Officers (DPOs) of all districts of NWFP for conducting raids on the sale points of the cement manufactured by the units. In this connection PSQCA had registered a formal FIR against a cement dealer in Karak. The official said that due to the lack of manufacturing licenses, which is a third party assurance, the units are marketing their products sans proper license, saying that the usage of the products of the units is risky. Similarly, the export of such products is also illegal and the authority has contacted Pakistan Customs for keeping check on the movement of the products.
Cherat Cement is a defaulter of about Rs 30 million and Lucky Cement of Rs 2.5 million in head of marking fee. Despite, these hue and cry made by the PSQCA, the sale of the cement manufactured by the two units was continued unabated in the market. "I had received no notice or intimation from any government agency to put halt to the sale of the products," Mohammad Iqbal, a cement dealer at New Rampura told this scribe.
He said that the quality of Cherat Cement is better than other cement factories and price was also low as compared to others.When the management of Cherat Cement was contacted, Yasir Masood, Chief Financial Officer of the company, termed the matter as sub judice, as it is being heard by both Peshawar and Sindh High courts, which had been given stay in the cases.
He said that the issue is not limited to only Cherat Cement Company, but related to the whole cement industry in the country. He said that the cement industry pay billion rupees in head of various taxes to the government, saying the issuance of manufacturing license and payment of marking fee was not such a big issue as made by the PSQCA.
He said that the authority has not only initiated legal cases against them, but also against cement units. Yasir Masood said that the matter was in the court and whatever decision will be given would be acceptable. However, he urged that the companies should not be harassed through using such tactics.
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