Parliament Panel Summons Cement, Sugar, Tobacco Firms

By Aftab Ahmed • February 26, 2026

Islamabad: A parlementary panel has summoned representatives of cement, sugar and tobacco industries over reports of tax evasion.A meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Industries and Production was held today under the Chairmanship of Syed Hafeezuddin, MNA, during which various matters were discussed in detail.

The report of the Sub-Committee was adopted, and also decided to revive the Sub-Committee for another month to ensure further progress on the assigned matters. The issue concerning K-Electric was discussed extensively regarding the charging of commercial tariff from employees residing in the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) township.

The Committee expressed annoyance and recommended that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of K-Electric personally appear before the Committee in the next meeting to provide a comprehensive report on the issue, along with complete details of the total amount collected so far from PSM employees.

The Committee has approved six ongoing PSDP projects for FY 2026-27 after the Ministry successfully addressed the outstanding concerns raised by members in the previous meeting held on 16 February 2026. The Committee expressed serious concern that the Sugar, Cement, and Tobacco industries are collecting taxes from consumers; however, there are apprehensions that the collected amounts are not being duly passed on to the Government.

In order to examine the matter in detail, the Committee recommended that representatives of the Sugar, Cement, Tobacco industries, and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) be called in the next meeting. The MNAs, namely Ms. Kiran Imran Dar, Dr. Mahesh Kumar Malani, Mr. Abdul Hakeem Baloch, Ms. Naz Baloch, Dr. Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, Mr. Muhammad Iqbal Khan, and the Additional Secretary M/o Industries & Production, besides other senior officials of the ministry and its attached departments, attended the meeting.