LAHORE: Sugar mills in Punjab have begun submitting their sugarcane purchase data with the Punjab cane commissioner after the Lahore High Court (LHC) involved the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in obtaining the unancial transactions of the millers from the banks in this regard and sharing it with the commissioner`s office.

The cane commissioner`s office has been making abortive attempts for the last many months to get a record of the cane purchase receipts to see if the growers are being paid their dues in accordance with the Punjab Sugar Factories (Control) Act 1950.

The Act binds the mills to pay the growers through banks within 15 days of the purchase of sugarcane. The mills are also bound to submit the data of sale/purchase with the cane commissioner`s office.

However, the millers have been reluctant to share the details.

Cane Commissioner Hussain Bahadur Ali Shah submitted before the court of Mr Justice Shahid Jamil Khan that most of themills were not providing data on payments to cane growers and bank accounts to verify the transactions.

It was also submitted that because of the limited capacity of the cane commissioner`s office, it could not approach each bank individually to get the payment data as per previous orders of the court.

At this, the LHC directed the SBP on July 15, 2022, to obtain the data from all the banks and transmit the same to the cane commissioner.

The data include accounts of the growers as well as payments against cane purchase receipts.

After the court directions, the commissioner also wrote a letter to the SBP governor for the provision of the data to regulate the sugar business and ensure that payments are made to the growers within the time defined in the law.

However, the millers have now begun directly sharing their CPR and payments data with the cane commissioner`s office, says an official. At least half a dozen mills have furnished the required details since the July 15 court orders, he adds, requesting not to be named.