PAKISTAN
Tobacco farmers are demanding that the Pakistani government provide relief and avoid imposing advance tax on them in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Leaders of different tobacco growers’ organizations along with labor unions including Kisan Board Pakistan, Sarhad Agricultural and Rural Development Organization, Pakistan Tobacco Workers Association, Anjuman Tahaffuz Haqooq-i-Kashtkaran, and Labors Federation said that tobacco was the only cash crop which had been contributing billions of rupees to the national exchequer through a central excise duty while also providing sustenance to numerous people.
They went on to say the advance tax on tobacco would ruin farmers and lead to a monopoly of multinational tobacco companies in Pakistan, which would result in massive unemployment.
Farmers then demanded that instead of the government forcing them to pay the advance tax it should impose taxes on the cigarette products.