Disclosure of hidden hands hitting the tobacco industry in the Parliamentary Committee on Industries and Mines

Company News; Mohammad Sheikhan, CEO of Iran Tobacco Company, appeared before the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Industries and Mines on Tuesday afternoon.

This meeting follows the recent supportive policies of the new CEO of Iran Tobacco Company for domestic and national production and support for tobacco farmers, especially the unveiling of agricultural packages with guaranteed purchase benefits of their products and price increases in favor of farmers and providing special services and facilities to Farmers were also held to prevent uncontrolled imports and outflows of currency from the country.

Sheikhan, among the members of the commission, while presenting the performance report and reviewing the challenges, addressed the issues and problems facing the tobacco industry and tobacco growers and called on the legislature and parliamentarians to provide the necessary support to the national and domestic industry.

Referring to the duties abstracted from the tobacco company, he emphasized its return to the company and said: the National Tobacco Company should be redesigned in the form of a specialized parent company.

Sheikhan then asked the commission members 12 questions as follows;

1. Why Iran Tobacco Company, which in the past had a 40% share of the domestic consumer market, today has reached about 10% of the market?

2. Why has the area under tobacco cultivation been reduced from 9000 hectares to 1000 hectares, and who harmed the livelihood and economy of farmers, and whose benefits went to the import of tobacco ?!

3. Who opened the door for multinational companies in the country in the form of a deception plan in the 1980s? And why today more than 75% of the domestic market share belongs to American, British and Japanese multinational companies?

4. Why is the law of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan and VAT adjusted in the interests of multinational companies?

5. Why after the formation of the Center for Planning and Supervision of the Tobacco Industry, domestic production and the only national company in Iran, has been damaged and the situation has been in favor of American, British and Japanese multinational companies ?.

6. Why do American, British, and Japanese multinationals have no commitment to health, employment, agricultural development, sports, and social responsibility, despite their rich profits from the Iranian domestic market? Is he leaving the country?

7. Why in the previous government, the president himself inaugurated the American-Japanese company primer tobacco line and allocated government currency to this company in the most critical currency conditions of the country?!.

8. Why is the tobacco industry in Iran defined under the headings of the Ministry of Silence under the food industry, and do we know what harms and threats the placing of this industry under the food industry poses to the country and national interests?

9. Why the policies during the last 8 years in the Center for Planning and Supervision of the Tobacco Industry of the country, in such a way as to create the presence, establishment and development of multinational companies in the country and they from the model of joint production with tobacco companies to establish production sites and create Have the factory moved?

10. Why do American, British and Japanese multinational companies operating in Iran, despite foreign ownership and shareholders, register taxes and duties similar to Iranian companies by registering some of their trademarks inside Iran, and the Ministry of Silence does not take any action to correct this wrong practice? does not have? It is expected that these misconceptions written in favor of American, British and Japanese multinational corporations by the current government’s influence of power and wealth will be rectified very soon.

11. Why, after unilateral US sanctions, did foreign companies abandon their contracts in the oil, petrochemical, automotive and energy industries and leave Iran; But in the field of tobacco industry, not only did they not stop their activities, but they also expanded their investments in Iran so much that in the first half of 2009 and at the height of the harsh sanctions, which even included drugs and medical equipment, more than 50%. Foreign investment has been in the tobacco industry.

Isn’t it time to study the performance of the tobacco industry in the last 8 years, when the nation’s capital has been looted by American, British, Japanese and Korean multinational companies with hidden hands, to return to the abstract duties of the tobacco company and this company National to be redesigned and organized in the form of a specialized parent company in line with national interests, national production, employment and preventing the outflow of currency from the country?

After the speech of the CEO of Tobacco Company, Yousef Davoodi, representative of Sarab Hojjatoleslam Alireza Salimi, representative of neighborhoods, Ali Akbar Karimi, representative of Arak, Lotfollah Siahkoli, representative of Qazvin, Ali Jedi, representative of Shirvan, Mehdi Asgari, representative of Karaj, Ruhollah Abbaspour, representative of Buinzahra, Behzad Rahimi, representative of Saqez They expressed their views.

While appreciating and thanking the transparent report of the CEO of the Tobacco Company, the deputies stated that the request of the Tobacco Company should be raised within the framework of the law so that the necessary support can be provided by the parliament.

The deputies also pointed to the anti-corruption view and support for domestic production of the CEO of the tobacco company, emphasizing that in the new term of management of the tobacco company, the lost treasury should be returned to the company.

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