Sugar mill defaults on Rs3 bn dues, growers complain to ACE

LAHORE: New revelations have emerged in the Sugar Mills scandal as the Anti Corruption Establishment divulged sugar mills across Punjab have evaded billions in payables, ARY News reported on Monday.

According to the details, sugarcane farmers listed a plethora of complaints against the exploitation by sugar millers to the Director-General Anti Corruption Gohar Nafees heading the investigations.

While the Punjab Cane Commissioner data apprised the DG of about Rs1 billion in payables by the sugar mill owners, DG ACE Nafees said that according to registered complaints of the farmers, the mill owners were liable to payables of Rs3 billion.

DG ACE Nafees said that the millers were ones to persecute and exploit the farmers as they deducted illegally from the payables and paid farmers less than their share.

READ: Ali Tareen excuses from appearing before FIA in sugar mills’ inquiry

Nafees added that the mill owners were being called in along with their data for the investigation and that only after the conclusion of the probe will they divulge the details to the public. He noted that the scandal is being probed with precision.

Earlier on Saturday, ACE Punjab, in its bid to tighten the noose around sugar mill mafia, sent summons to 44 sugar millers from across Punjab to show up with their records.

DG Gohar Nafees had stated that the exploitation of sugarcane farmers will not be tolerated and noted that the number of complaints filed against millers was in abundance. He detailed that within the past two weeks, the ACE collected over 2500 complaints from the farmers out of which 1363 claimed their share was illegally deducted while some 641 said they did not get paid at all.