The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has increased the rate of income tax from one percent to 1.5 percent on ginners from the current cotton season, and has asked the tax managers to collect the tax at the revised rate.
Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) chairman Suhail Mehmood Haral has strongly condemned the revision of rate on income tax on the ginneries, describing it harmful to the interests of the ginning industry.
He said that imposition of fixed tax at the rate of one percent was a financial burden on the ginners and they were struggling for getting it waived, but now the FBR increased the tax by 50 percent and now it would collect 1.5 percent.
He said that the ginning industry was already passing through severe economic stress because commercial banks had refused to reschedule their debts and advancing loans for the current season. He appealed to the President and Prime Minister not to push the ginners into the alley, otherwise they would be forced to close their business, causing loss of billions of rupees to the farmers as well as the nation because all textile, weaving, and spinning mills, power looms and other cotton related industry would come to a standstill.
He said that ginners would be forced to set their future protest strategy if their demands were not met and this unjust increase was not withdrawn.