Small farmers feel left out as PM's package fails to deliver

FAZAL SHER & ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: The much-publicized September, 14, 2015 Prime Ministers Kissan Package has failed to benefit small farmers as the government has released only Rs 25 billion out of the envisaged Rs 40 billion cash assistance while progress on other aspects of the package has been slow.

An official of Ministry of National, Food, Security and Research - monitoring and implementing entity of the Prime Ministers Kissan Package of Rs 341 billion - acknowledged that there were major hiccups in implementation of the package. Procedure is very difficult for small farmers and only influential people have been able to benefit from it, he added.

He said the issue was also discussed in the standing committees of parliament where members from opposition parties accused the government of favoring their blue eyed people especially in areas of cash assistance and subsidy on fertilizer.

The package, he said envisaged a direct benefit of Rs147 billion to small farmers across the country and Rs194 billion through easy loans to the agriculture sector.

President Pakistan Kissan Ittehad Punjab said only Rs 25 billion out of the Rs 40 billion earmarked in the Prime Ministers Kissan package as cash assistance of Rs 5000 per acre to the cotton growers and Rs 5000 per acre to the rice growers in order to compensate them was disbursed.

Sadly the Government has provided Rs 25 billion cash assistance to influential farmers of rice and cotton and stopped the scheme, he claimed.

He further maintained that Kissan Ittehad has brought corruption in the disbursement of package into the notice of high ups but deplored that no action has so far been taken.

He said that there was no progress on the interest-free loans promised to the farmers of 12 acres or less for the installation of solar tube-wells.

President Sindh Abadkar Ittehad Nawaaz Zubair Talpur said that farmers of Sindh province have got nothing under Prime Ministers Kissan Package and accused the federal government of making the package Punjab centric. He claimed that Rs 25 billion cash compensation was distributed to the farmers in Punjab alone.

President Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Itteha-e-Zamindaran Arbab Jamil stated that in the package subsidy on fertilizers benefited farmers.

He added that the concerned department was approached many times regarding package for installation of solar tube wells but got no response from them.

As cotton and rice are not cultivated in the KP therefore the question of cash grant did not arise for the farmers of his province, he stated.

Prime Ministers package envisaged a Rs20 billion subsidy to reduce the price of fertilizers to be equally shared by the federal and provincial governments. The package was aimed at reducing the price of potassium and phosphate fertilizers by Rs500 per bag.

The package also included supply of LNG to urea fertilizer plants, payment of interest against the loans required for crops with an earmarked expenditure of Rs2.5 billion and Rs7 billion concessions in electricity tariff.

The package further envisaged a Rs14 billion subsidy on tariff on tube wells, Rs14.5 billion for installation of solar tube-wells, relaxation in turnover tax to rice millers as compensation to minimize their losses as well as tax holiday on income tax for the cold chain industry trading in agricultural products, fruits, vegetables and fish. Reduction in sales tax from 17 per cent to 7 percent on local purchase or import of farm machinery used for tilling, seed sowing and harvesting as well as storage and irrigation, etc., was also part of the package.

The Kissan package also envisaged a 50 percent guarantee scheme on loans provided by commercial and micro-finance banks to farmers which would benefit 300,000 small farmers at a cost of Rs 34 billion. Under the scheme the farmers with five acres of irrigated land and 10 acres barani land can get a loan of Rs100,000 without any collateral.