Green Leaf Threshing (GLT) unit: Govt planning to deploy FC personnel for monitoring

ISLAMABAD: The government is planning to deploy Frontier Constabulary force in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to regulate/monitor Green Leaf Threshing unit, to strengthen enforcement for checking massive evasion in tobacco sector.

The decision has been taken by the law enforcement agencies on the request of Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Sources told Business Recorder that the country’s tax potential from the cigarette sector exceeds Rs 600 billion annually.

The two multinational companies that hold 44% of the market paid Rs 292 billion in taxes. Contrary to this, more than 40 local manufacturers controlling the remaining 56% of the market paid a meager Rs 5 billion. Over Rs 300 billion in tax revenue, more than the federal allocations for education and health combined, has disappeared into the black market.

FBR Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial recently admitted that over 90% of the cigarette sector operates outside the formal tax system. The Track and Trace System, introduced to enforce compliance, is failing. Only 19 of 413 registered brands are compliant. The government has proposed deploying Frontier Constabulary units in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to regulate Green Leaf Threshing, signaling the extraordinary scale of the breakdown in civilian enforcement mechanisms.

“This is no longer just a fiscal gap. It is a full-scale collapse of enforcement,” said Mubashir Akram, National Convener of ACT Alliance Pakistan. “We are watching legal businesses being penalized while the tax evaders thrive. A parallel economy has taken over this sector.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025