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Pakistan: Business group launches complaint against corrupt middlemen

By  |  August 9, 2013

The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises, Unisame, filed a complaint with the Competition Commission of Pakistan claiming professional middlemen have formed a cartel and are working as moneylenders instead of facilitators. The group claims the cartel is manipulating market structures and prices within the rice, wheat, maize, spices and sugar sectors. Unisame president Zulfikar Thaver reportedly said in the complaint that middlemen facilitating business operations are taking huge chunks of profits from farmers; further, the union accuses the middlemen of lending the farmers money to control crop prices and business practices of the farmers. The group is now hoping the CCP will launch an investigation into the matter.

Full Content: Pakistan Observer

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