The owners of around 1200 ginning factories remained continued on the 13th day on Thursday against the levy of 3.5 percent withholding tax (WHT). Addressing a Press Conference on Wednesday Shehzad Ali Khan, Vice Chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) said that they had submitted a memorandum to President Zardari Prime Minister Gilani and they assured to redress the grievances of the ginners.
The chairman PCGA said that farmers of Sindh were facing severe crisis due to flood, which had broken their back. If the withholding tax existed, it will break the back of all cotton growers in Pakistan and they would not dare to sow cotton in next season and the government would have to import cotton by spending huge foreign exchange for saving the textile industry.
He vowed that ginners would not backout from their stance and they would not pay withholding tax, nor serve as Patwaris to maintain the record of land and crop of the cotton growers. He was optimistic that the prime minister would ask the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to withdraw the SRO-1161 dated December 31,2010. Otherwise their protest would continue till the achievement of the objective. He said that PCGA would continue their strike and stopping the purchase of raw cotton (Phutti) from the growers till the withdrawal of SRO of 3.5 percent withholding tax and said that ginners were not ready to pay withholding tax.
They said that ginners have no sufficient staff to scrutinise the official documents and they have no expertise to judge the fake and genuine documents. They said, "we are not ready to undergo imprisonment for the crime that we did not commit," Khan said that they were traders, they were not tax manager/collectors nor FBR could compel them to serve as patwari as well as tax collector. He said that ginners were already paying one percent turnover tax on the sale of cotton even without earning any profit in the light of an agreement between the PCGA and FBR.
They demanded for withdrawal of notices served on ginners of Sindh for depositing the 3.5 percent withholding tax. They said that FBR has opened a pandora box for the farmers as well as ginners, which would breed corruption and the revenue department would fleece the cotton growers for issuance of their cotton produce certificate.
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