The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has licensed two floors to auction tobacco, but told Premier Tobacco Auction Floor to shape up if it wants to get a licence for the 2016 selling season, which begins on March 30.
BY NDAMU SANDU
The licensed auction floors are Tobacco Sales Floor and Boka Tobacco Auction Floors. TIMB board chairperson, Monica Chinamasa told NewsDay last week that the regulator wants things done according to the requirements of the industry.
“We are not hard masters. We want to work with them harmoniously, but requirements are requirements. They have to be fulfilled,” she said.
“We have licensed two and are working on the third one. They have to fulfill one or two of our requirements.”
Chinamasa said Premier has to put its house in order before March 30 to be licensed. The move by TIMB comes as it emerged last week that Premier’s debt in statutory obligations in government and tobacco levies had ballooned from $600 000 it had when the 2015 selling season started.
Last year, Premier chief executive officer Philemon Mangena told NewsDay that statutory obligations would have been cleared by September 2015.
“Outstanding amounts to statutory bodies have also been secured by immovable assets and the debts will be extinguished by September 2015,” he said then.
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It is understood that Premier had promised TIMB that the debts would have been cleared by that time, but they failed to live up to the promise.
This has put TIMB in a spot and failure to deal with a “delinquent child” would raise questions on the ability of the regulator to stamp its authority on the industry. The tough stance by TIMB comes as it emerged last week that all was not well at Premier with some disgruntled workers ready to jump ship.
“It’s not looking good for the company. Management is not communicating with us and we are in the dark,” a disgruntled worker said.
It also emerged last week that Premier was in talks with some banks (names supplied) for a bailout so that it could receive the licence. The statutory levies owed to TIMB are money that was deducted from growers, but was not forwarded to the regulator. This has serious implications on TIMB’s ability to render adequate service to farmers who would have paid for this service, industry experts say.
Growers pay government levy, which is used to fund the operations of TIMB and Tobacco Research Board. Tobacco levy is paid by buyers and it is supposed to be remitted to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority. Fears abound that if Premier were to be licensed in this current state, it would collapse during the selling season, leaving farmers, who have delivered their crops in lurch, a situation similar to the demise of Millennium Tobacco Auction Floors.
Millennium did not register for the 2013 selling season. Questions sent to Mangena on Monday had not been responded to by yesterday.
It is not the first time that Premier has been accused of prejudicing government. In 2014, NewsDay reported that Premier Tobacco Auction Floors and its sister companies, Megalink (Pvt) Ltd and Front Comm (Pvt) Ltd, had prejudiced government of $6,7 million in unpaid taxes.
