Tribal area-based ghee mills are hitting hard the industry in settled areas as ghee/cooking oil produced in non-settled areas is cheaper and easily available in abundance in many parts of Punjab as well as the federal capital.
This price difference is problematic for settled areas ghee industry.
The market sources said income tax exemption makes 5-kg ghee or cooking oil produced in tribal area cheaper by Rs 7. This difference increases to Rs 20 for a 16-kilogram ghee tin.
They said such a big difference in the prices was making tribal areas' mills products the first choice of the consumers for whom each penny counts. Gul Shahzada Vanaspati Ghee Mills, one of the tribal areas' mills, is a typical example.
The products of Gul Shahzada are available in all the markets of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. One can buy its products-one kilogram pouch, 5-kg and 16 kg tin of ghee and cooking oil-at much lesser rate than prices at which the mills of settled areas are selling their products.
An Islamabad-based ghee industrialist told Business Recorder that with each passing day the flow of ghee and cooking oil from non-settled areas was increasing and its uninterrupted supply would leave the ghee industry in settled areas in complete disarray.
He said the ghee industry has constantly been raising the case with the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) authorities but they were yet to take any action on the issue. He said, "We understand that CBR had barred unsettled areas ghee mills from selling their products in settled area but none is following the rules." Unsettled areas' mills are enjoying three percent exemption on income tax on ghee and cooking oil sale and this is the main cause of difference in rates between the two areas.