British American Tobacco yesterday insisted that it was one of the best employers in Burma - despite giving its factory workers there a basic salary of 17p a day.
A row over BAT's continued presence in the south-east Asian military dictatorship dominated the company's recent annual meeting.
It blew up again last night, when human rights activists released new data which appeared to show that its pay scales in Burma were much lower than it had revealed at the company's annual meeting.
The latest figures threaten to embarrass BAT's deputy chair man and former Tory chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, because they contradict those he recently gave to the parliamentary group on Burma.
At the annual meeting, the company had argued that the 17p salary was one part of a series of payments - including a bonus, meal benefit, shift allowance and overtime - which could give its lowest paid workers £30 a month or 52,941 Burmese kyat.
The Burma Campaign UK says it checked these figures later with David Wilson, the corporate and regulatory affairs manager for BAT in the Asia Pacific region.
Mr Wilson admitted to the human rights group that the overtime figure was one sixth of the figure given by BAT previously, and said the average monthly figure for the lowest paid workers was £16.10 a month - not £30.
The tobacco company, based in London, would not comment on the discrepancy between the figures, insisting there were no anomalies.
"Our Group company is one of the best factory payers, with pay rates in the top 25% of major companies in Burma.
"Burma Campaign's continued interest in our employee wages in Burma is very surprising, given their publicly stated demand that we 'immediately close' the factory and make all 500 employees redundant," the company said in a written statement.
