HYDERABAD, Jan 11: Expressing concern over reports that the government is contemplating to withdraw quality premium on sugarcane, the Sindh Abadgar Board has said that if the government does not approach the issue pragmatically, the withdrawal of quality premium will have disastrous consequences for all the stakeholders, including the industry.

In a statement faxed to Dawn on Thursday, the president of the board, Abdul Majeed Nizamani, pointed out that the quality premium had been fixed under the Sugar Factories Control Act 1950 and enjoyed constitutional protection under its article 270-A.

He said that the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) had filed a petition in the Sindh High Court against the premium which was dismissed by the court in a judgement spread over 100 pages. He added that the judgement was in favour of sugarcane premium.

Mr Nizamani said that the PSMA had filed another petition in the Supreme Court against the decision of the high court and the Sindh government and the Sindh Abadgar Board were parties in the case. He said that the matter is still pending in the apex court and was, therefore, sub-judice.

Therefore, he said, it would be improper to take any decision before the matter was decided by the Supreme Court.

He argued that in all the sugarcane producing countries, the price of sugarcane was fixed according to recovery of sucrose and premium was paid if the sucrose recovery crossed certain benchmark.

He said that the idea behind it was to encourage farmers to produce quality sugarcane from which more sugar could be extracted.

He said that it was an incentive to farmers to cultivate good quality of sugarcane and to maintain the crop in a proper manner.

He said that it was also beneficial for sugar industry because from sugarcane of better quality, more sugar was recovered. He said that the premium created competition to increase the per acre yield.

Mr Nizamani regretted that for the last many years, the growers were not being paid premium which had swelled to Rs5.65 billion by 2,005.

He appealed to the government not to take any decision in the matter without taking input from all stakeholders.

PROTEST: A large number of sugarcane growers staged a protest demonstration at Nine-Miles bus stop in the Bulri Shah Karim area on Thursday to protest against the price policy of the Sindh Abadgar Sugar Mills.

They also blocked the Bulri Shah Karim-Sujawal-Hyderabad road by parking sugarcane-laden trucks on. it. As a result vehicular traffic remained suspended for some time. They carried banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the mill management.

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Abadgar Ittehad leader Mir Kazim Raza Talpur, Amir Bux Sathio, Gul Hassan Rind and others threatened to suspend sugarcane supply to the mill.

They said that the mill was not paying official rate of sugarcane to the growers and added that big and influential farmers were being paid higher rates while the small growers were being exploited.

They said that it was an injustice with small growers and threatened to launch a protest movement against the mills if it did not mend its ways. They appealed to the higher authorities to take legal action against the mill for refusing to pay the official price.