Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has called upon the government to reduce the general sales tax (GST) rate from 16 percent to 4 four percent and also to exempt growers owning up to 25 acres of land from the GST. A meeting of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, presided over by its Vice-President Mir Murad Ali Khan Talpur, maintained that a uniform 16 percent GST on all farmers would have an adverse effect on the agricultural economy.
General Secretary of the Chamber, Nabi Bux Sathio, called upon the government to tender equitable incentives to all the sectors of economy. "It should formulate an agricultural policy which offers benefits to the growers on the lines of the trade policy. The policy should also contain the fixed prices agricultural inputs and also the rates of different crops in order to prevent price fluctuation and hoarding."
"Sindh government has procured only 1.2 million tons of wheat crop against the estimated production of more than four million tons in the province. As a result, the remaining growers had to sell their crop at less than Rs 850 per 40 kilogramme against the government's buying rate of Rs 950 per 40 kg," Sathio cited in reference to their demand.
The meeting strongly criticised the imposition of ban by Sindh Cane Commissioner on three crop varieties of sugarcane. "The growers cultivated the three banned varieties, N.I.A 98, CO-245 and CP-2084 varieties, in the month of April while the crop will be harvested in September and October. The government should have issued the notification of banning the varieties prior to the sowing," said Muhammad Khan Sarejo.
Sarejo maintained the ban will cause a loss of hundreds of million of rupees to the growers as the three varieties in terms of percentage have a share of more than 50 percent in all cane sowing. The growers attending the meeting urged the government to provide them at least 2 years before prohibiting the procurement of the banned varieties by the sugar mills so that the growers could recover their expenditures. Among others, the meeting was attended by Syed Aijaz Nabi Shah, Akhund Ghulam Muhammad Siddiqui, Mir Zafarullah Talpur and Ghulam Rasool Baloch.