Sugar Export Subsidy Fund Ordinance, 1970

This Ordinance, issued in 1970, set up a dedicated fund to subsidise the export of sugar from Pakistan, financed by special taxes on sugar-cane and sugar production. It applied only to Baluchistan, the North-West Frontier Province, the Punjab, and Sind, not the whole country.

Section 3 levies both a sales tax and an excise duty: a sales tax of twenty-five paisa per maund on sugar-cane sold to sugar mills, an excise duty of twenty-five paisa per maund on sugar-cane grown directly by sugar mills themselves, and an excise duty of one rupee per maund on sugar actually produced by sugar mills, all in addition to any other existing sales tax or excise duty.

Section 4 establishes the Sugar Export Subsidy Fund, into which the proceeds of these taxes (after deducting collection costs) are credited, to be used by the Federal Government to subsidise sugar exports as it decides; the government could also authorise repayment of excise duty already paid on sugar that a mill later exported. Section 5 lets the government require export contracts for sugar to be registered. Section 6 gives the government power to require sugar mills to maintain records and allows authorised officers to enter and inspect sugar factories and demand production-related information.

Section 7 makes it an offence, punishable with imprisonment up to three years, a fine, or both, to contravene an order under the Ordinance, to give false information, or to keep double sets of inconsistent records. Sections 8 to 10 extend liability to company officers, require Federal Board of Revenue approval before prosecuting them, and require a written complaint before any court can take up a case.

This is an old, sector-specific law from 1970, its tax rates expressed in the pre-decimal currency unit of paisa and the traditional unit of maund, and it applied only to certain provinces even at the time. Given its age and narrow historical purpose (subsidising sugar exports in that era), its practical relevance to current sugar policy should be checked against later tax and trade legislation.