The federal government on Monday directed the authorities concerned to launch a crackdown against sugar mafia in light of the sugar inquiry commission report and submit implementation report within 90 days.
Prime Minister’s Advisor on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar has written separate letters to the governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) chief and chief secretaries of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh to launch a crackdown against the sugar mafia. The sugar inquiry commission report has also been annexed with the letters written after seeking consent of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The federal cabinet had already accorded consent to action plan on June 23 to implement the sugar commission report.
According to a press release, the federal government also sought clarification from the CCP over delay in action against the sugar cartels. The CCP will investigate matters like sugar hoarding and non-supply of sugar at the utility stores. The Federal Board of Revenue has been directed to conduct an audit of all sugar mills across the country to investigate the matters related to benami accounts, dubious transactions and tax evasion.
In the light of the letter, the SBP governor has been directed to investigate into sugar mills’ loans and dubious exports and submit a comprehensive report in this regard. The FIA and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan have been tasked to probe corporate fraud and the export issue of sugar mills. Likewise, the National Accountability Bureau has been directed to fix the responsibility under the facts of sugar commission report. The anti-corruption watchdog has also been tasked to analyse the aspects of subsidies which went against laws.
The departments concerned would also investigate the reportedly given loans on interest and short payments to sugarcane growers despite receiving hefty subsidies from the government. The provincial anti-corruption departments have been authorised to conduct investigations against sugar mills, the letter said.
In his letter to the FBR, Akbar said that the sugar inquiry commission had found instances of money laundering and sales and income tax fraud in their dealings. The sugar probe, Akbar said in his letter, found that mill owners had been involved in concealing business turnover by “over-invoicing, under-invoicing, off the books activity and double bookkeeping, etc”.
Akbar also informed the Sindh and Punjab chief secretaries about the findings of the sugar inquiry commission including evidence of payments to cane growers that were under the support price. He further told the chief secretaries that instances of interest-based loans to growers by mill owners, consequent profits and ‘unauthorised enlargements’ in crushing capabilities were also mentioned in the inquiry report. He noted that such practises were in ‘derogation of various provincial laws’.
He noted that these offences were within the jurisdiction of the province’s anti-corruption department and directed the chief secretaries to carry out an investigation to ‘unearth full spectrum of offences committed under the relevant provincial laws and take penal and corrective measures as per law’.
The sugar inquiry commission, which was headed by FIA chief Wajid Zia and included officials from other institutions, was set up on the orders of Prime Minister Imran Khan to investigate the reasons behind the soaring price and shortage of the commodity in the country. The commission’s report, which was made public by the government in May, exposed multiple wrongdoings within the sugar industry and implicated key government and opposition political figures, including PTI leader Jahangir Tareen, PML-Q MNA Moonis Elahi, federal minister Khusro Bakhtiar and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif’s son.
The report detailed how over the years the sugar mill owners had manipulated the market to make windfall profits amounting to billions of rupees, shedding light on the nexus between these owners and various government officials that led to unregulated practises bypassing laws and often exploiting the farmers. It also revealed how the ‘sugar cartel’ comprising 88 mills had cheated sugarcane growers and consumers at every step starting from the procurement of cane, production of sugar, sale in the local market and export, all of which led to price hike of sugar as well as billions of rupees of tax evasion.
