Sin tax : Tobacco farmers decry calling their earning ‘gunah’

PESHAWAR: Tobacco farmers from different regions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have criticised the proposed sin tax on tobacco and threatened to protest across the province, if government implements this levy which they called controversial and insulting.

Addressing the press conference at Peshawar Press Club, representatives of tobacco growers said that tobacco is a major crop of K-P.

Bread and butter of thousands of people is directly and indirectly attached with tobacco sector, they said.

They criticised federal health ministry for proposing new tax on tobacco called as “gunnah or sin tax” and said this controversial insulting proposal only to please few international NGOs without keeping in mind the critical importance of tobacco crop for the poor farmers of K-P.

They further added that it is a conspiracy against elected government to give negative image among public and especially farmers of K-P.

Tobacco farmer’s representatives included Rustam Khan, Professor Hamid ur Rehman, Anwar Sher, Abdul Salam, Shahid Zubair, Zubair Muhammad, Babar Khan, Sajid Khan. Fazal Qadir, Khan Muhammad, Tariq Sial, Naqeeb Khan, Shad Khan from Manshera, Buner, Swabi, Charsada and Mardan. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2018.