Opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah has written a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to address the critical issues faced by farmers at the moment. Khursheed Shah said that Pakistani Kissan Ittehad has arranged All Pakistan Conference on Agriculture Disaster, in Islamabad on February 24, 2016 and discussed the problems faced by the Kissan community in the country.
He said that they have prepared proposals for betterment of the agricultural community. He said that their Charter of Demands has been endorsed by the undersigned Federal Minister for Food Security and Research on behalf of federal government, provincial Agriculture Minister Punjab and heads of other political parties. "I shall be grateful if you could spare sometime to redress the grievances of Pakistani farmers," the Opposition leader said.
According to Charter of Demands of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad, (i) as an immediate measure all taxes including GST on agriculture inputs may be withdrawn (seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, farm machinery etc), (ii) duty free import of all fertilisers, including urea, may be allowed by the private sector, (iii) availability of latest seed varieties is a major impediment to productivity enhancement, (iv) national and international seed companies may be provided all facilities (including IPR cover) to operate in our market, (v) electricity prices have been slashed for other sectors of the economy, water is the most critical input for crop production, it is demanded that electricity price for tube well connections may be fixed at a flat rate inclusive of all taxes at Rs 5/unit and (vi) the cost of production for all crops has skyrocketed, while prices have plummeted by 40 to 50 percent.
Green Diesel voucher scheme may be launched for tractor and tube wells operation at 50 percent of prevailing market price as is the case in other countries. Demand for goods and services in the rural economy have declined sharply. An agriculture emergency may be declared immediately where top priority in resource allocation is accorded to this sector. Agriculture Income Tax exemption may be enhanced to Rs 500,000 as in the case with other sectors and citizens.
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