Altaf Hamid Rao:
MIRPUR ( AJK), (Parliament Times) : Lambasting the incumbent forward Bloc PTI-led coalition AJK government for its, what local cigarettes industry entrepreneurs alleged, unfair policies and hostile behaviour towards the existing cigarettes manufacturing entrepreneur in Azad Jammu Kashmir, particularly in Mirpur division, the cigarettes manufacturers have accused the AJK Government of stabbing the cigarettes industry through its unjust policies treating them as the dacoits of ‘Kachas’ belt.
Our Special Jammu and Kashmir state Correspondent Altaf Hamid Rao reports from Mirpur that these views were expressed by spokespersons of the AJK-based Walton Tobacco Company, Arif Zia, Mohammad Ali, Umar Ahmed who categorically stated while addressing news conference here late Sunday.
They alleged that the Azad Jammu Kashmir government has adopted the approach of bandits towards raw material badly resorting to great harm to theor business worth billions of rupees.
They continued despite cigarettes manufacturing units in AJK were contributing crores of rupees monthly and billions of Rs annually as levies to the state exchequer, their cigarettes factories have been raided and sealed in a most brazen manner and we have been proved thieves based on assumptions which is cruel and is tantamount to increas unemployment in the state, they maintained while addressing the crowded news Conference at Kashmir Press Club here.
They alleged that the AJK Government was misusing the State Inland Revenue Department ([ IRD] at Zthe govt.s’ will. “We ?have not ever seen such unlawful exercise and misuse of powers on the part of any regulatory authority”, they maintained.
“We will take legal action against such unlawful exercises on the part of the State authorities on AJK and will not allow this illegal campaign to malign and abandoned the cigarettes industry to succeed:, they declared.
“We have been doing cigarette business in Azad Jammu Kashmir for thirty-one years and are regular taxpayers.
“Walton Tobacco Company and other AJK based companies are the largest taxpayers in the state”, they asserted.
They accused Azad Jammu Kashmir Government, Prime Minister, Senior Minister of telling lies of different kinds to defame the locak cigarettes industry.
“The AJK government and the concerned in the State administration were exercising rough jov as the authorities seems ruling here without any law or regulation. They urged that the exercise of conducting raids in cigarettes manufacturing units should immediately be stopped.
“Yes, we have all the records, no tax is applied on the raw material, this government does not understand that much. There is also the finding of the Income Tax Department. Smuggled cigarettes are being sold in the whole country. We are taxpayers, they are humiliated, this attitude will make hundreds of people unemployed
We are paying a tax of 24 crores per month for a single factory, which is worth billions annually. We have not been issued any show cause, nor can the Income Tax Department conduct an audit, but that has not been done either. We are sorry for the ignorance of the senior government minister, it is a direct extortion case in which we are being forced to do business if we pay extortion, otherwise the businesses will be locked”, the spokespersons said.
They asserted that Azad Jammu and Kashmir government had staged the drama of conducting surprise raid on raw material stocks to save its declining reputation.
They revealed that all the offices in the cigarette factories have been sealed. “If this hostile attitude is continued by the AJK government. we will be constrained to wind up our business from AJK”, they said adding “We will never pay extortion. The administration has threatened us with severe consequences. This was an extortion collection operation in which no one has any evidence as to where the tax was being evaded and who was selling the stolen property”, they said.
Referring to the state authorities assertion of confiscating the raw material, they stated that impounded trucks were caught by the police on the way.
” Had they been passed through the excise check post without an invoice, we would have been guilty and raw materials could not have been taxed. It is said that two hundred trucks were plied but there was no solid evidence with the authorities. Can they give where and when the truck operates ?, they underlined.
