LAHORE: Following directions by the Lahore High Court (LHC) to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to ensure sharing of data with the Cane Commissioner Punjab of the sugar mills accounts and payments made to growers through banks, sugar mills have started submitting their sale/purchase and payment records to the office of Cane Commissioner Punjab.
The cane commissioner’s office has been making futile attempts for the last many months to get record of the cane purchase to see if the growers are being paid their dues in accordance with the Punjab Sugar Factories (Control) Act 1950.
The Act binds the mills to pay the growers through banks within the 15 days of the purchase of sugarcane.
The mills are also bound to submit the data of sale/purchase with the cane commissioner office. However, the millers have been reluctant to share the details. It may be mentioned that the newly-appointed Cane Commissioner Punjab, Hussain Bahadur Ali Shah, submitted in the court of Justice Shahid Jamil Khan that most of the mills are not providing data regarding accounts with the banks and payments to growers, which is not being provided by most of the mills except three mills.
According to the Punjab Sugar Factories (Control) Act 1950, sugar mills are bound to pay the growers through bank within the 15 days of the purchase of sugarcane. The mills are also bound to submit the data of sale/purchase with the cane commissioner office. On the directions of the court, the PSMA and the State Bank joined the process for carving out the system to make payments to growers through banks.
However, the cane commissioner office expressed its inability to collect data from each Bank due to its volume throughout Punjab.
On this, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) was directed by the learned court to obtain this data from all the banks and transmit the same to Cane Commissioner, Punjab. The data include accounts of the growers as well as payments against Cane Purchase Receipt (CPR).
After these court directions, the Cane Commissioner Punjab office also wrote a letter recently to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for provision of data of the accounts of the growers as well as payments against Cane Purchase Receipt (CPR) so that it can regulate the sugar business accordingly and ensure that payments are made to the growers within the time defined in the law.
On contact, it was informed by the Cane Commissioner Punjab office sources that sugar mills have started submitting their data. However, no specific figure was given by the cane commissioner office saying that the numbers are increasing on daily basis.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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