Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) has urged the government to immediately withdraw 3.5 percent withholding tax on agricultural produce. KBP Central President, Sardar Zafar Hussein Khan in a statement issued on Thursday criticised the government's decision of levying 3.5 percent withholding tax on cotton and termed it an anti-agriculture step of the rulers.
Khan said that small growers neither can open an account in bank nor they could get papers of their area under cultivation from patwaris without paying bribe. He said that the government should take steps to save farmers from any such hardship and should not promote an environment, which could result in bribery and exploitation. He said earlier the government had seen the result of involvement of the revenue department in wheat procurement campaign when wheat was sold at Rs 800 per maund instead of its support price of Rs 950 per maund.
KBP leader was of the view that such steps would decrease trust level between the government and the masses. He said small growers could not take its produce direct to ginners and he has to sell it to middlemen or in the open market. He also claimed that there were strikes in the markets due to withholding tax and unrest, which has resulted in decline in the prices of cotton. So the growers had to face losses due to low prices. He appealed to the government to save the growers from any such exploitation and withdraw the decision of imposing withholding tax.
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