New taxation measures taken by the Federal government including imposition of flood surcharge and exemptions in sales tax will put a financial burden of Rs 30 billion on growers' community. This was alleged by the KBP President Sardar Zafar Hussein and General Secretary Malik Muhammad Ramzan Rohari in their reaction on imposition of flood surcharge and other measures taken by the government the other day.
Withdrawing exemptions from textile, leather and sugar sector would ruin the growers of cotton, sugarcane and dairy farmers, they added. KBP leaders said that imposition of sales tax on agricultural inputs like fertilisers, tractors and other agricultural implements and pesticides would give an upward push to already sky-rocketing prices of these items. The farming community would be unable to purchase these items, they alleged.
They also criticised two percent increase in electricity tariff and said it would make impossible to use tube-wells for irrigation purposes. They claimed that the agricultural sector, directly or indirectly, had to pay Rs 30 billion.
Farmers' leaders said that the fertiliser manufacturers had already earned Rs 28 billion from the growers by making an increase of Rs 400-500 per bag of the fertilisers. Sugar millers also delaying the payments to the sugarcane growers, while the provincial government also caused a loss of Rs 260 million to the growers by abolishing the delivery charges.
Reduction in the wheat procurement drive by 1.5 million tons would also leave the wheat growers on the mercy of middlemen and flour millers, they added. The KBP leaders urged that the rulers should not make drone attacks on dying agricultural economy and withdraw the newly imposed taxation measures immediately.
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