ISLAMABAD: The associations of the farmers Sunday urged the government to fix the tobacco rate at Rs300 per kilogram to provide relief to growers keeping in view rising inflation.

Officials of Kissan Board Pakistan and Kissan Board Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have made these demands during a convention of the farmers held here on Sunday which was attended by the growers and their representatives.

They also proposed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to avoid imposition of any new tax on these products in the coming budget.

President of Kissan Board Pakistan advocate Shaukat Chadhar said the government should introduce growers’ friendly policies in the country to promote agriculture, strengthen the country’s economy and support farmers.

He demanded the government to fix the rate of tobacco at Rs300 per kilogram to support the farmers.

Speaking on the occasion, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed said that the agriculture sector of the country was weakening due to poor policies of the government. He said Pakistan used to export wheat, but now it has imported from Russia.

The Senator said that prices of the pesticides were getting out of the reach of the farmers, and growers were switching to other professions. He warned that if the government failed to do the course correction, the country could face a food shortage in the coming years.

Addressing the farmers’ convention, President Kissan Board Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rizwanullah Khan accused that arrears of the growers pending with the Universal Tobacco and Indus Tobacco should be immediately cleared, he claimed.

He said that Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) should cancel these companies’ quota if they failed to clear their arrears, and the government should initiate legal action against them.

Khan added that the farmers will be left with no choice but to protest in front of the chief minister house if their pending dues were not cleared at the earliest.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021