The lawmakers Thursday recommended the government to further reduce sales tax on agriculture machinery as well as input and increase import duty on agricultural products to strengthen the agriculture sector. The joint meeting of National Assembly and Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research recommended the government to reduce sales tax on agriculture machinery to a maximum level and further increase import duty on agriculture products to improve the declining contribution of agriculture products in GDP.
The committee that met with Senator Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah in the chair, also recommended the government to enhance Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocation for Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNF&R), reduce sale tax on agriculture input including fertilisers, reduce electricity tariff for tube-wells and set up Pakistan Agriculture Price Commission to fix prices of major crops.
Shah said the contribution of agriculture products to GDP is declining with each passing day in the country due to high input cost, lack of quality seed and modern technology. Quoting a document, presented by MNFS&R to the committee, he said that the cost of Urea per bag in Pakistan is 306 percent higher than India, Diammonium phosphate (DAP) per bag 94 percent higher than India, Muriate of Potash (MOP) per bag 131 percent higher, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash (NPK) per bag 170 percent and diesel per liter 13 percent higher in Pakistan as compared to India. He said that agriculture is one of the important sectors in Pakistan's economy but we failed to provide a level playing field to our farmers.
Muhammad Safdar MNA said the MNFS&R needs to arrange an informative seminar before the start of every crop season to educate farmers about the use of modern technology and research conducted by our research institutions. "The government allocates Rs 19 billion to Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) therefore FATA administration needs to spend Rs 4 billion out of the total allocation to strengthen the agriculture sector," he said. Seerat Asghar, Secretary MNFS&R while briefing the committee about 'food security policy with new strategies said Pakistan is lagging far behind in yield of banana, onion, tomato, cucumber and melon from India, China, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Israel and Spain.
"Pakistan is importing tomato worth Rs 20 billion from India every year to overcome the shortfall," he added. However, he said Pakistan can increase yield of fruits and vegetable by at least 50 percent and export over $1billion if adopts modern techniques and provide a level playing field to farmers.
He said customs duty on the import of rice paddy is 80 percent in India while in Pakistan it is 10 percent. Customs duty on rice milled is 70 percent in India while 10 percent in Pakistan. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, major crop like wheat, rice and sugarcane in Pakistan will remain under pressure for next few years therefore we need to take effectives measures to provide relief to farmers, he said.
Asghar said that a comprehensive food security policy is the need of the hour at federal and provincial level because of rising cost of production, climate change, falling international prices of agriculture products, decline in export and reduction in grower return.
He said that about 50 percent of agriculture products were being damaged including the wastage of dates of worth Rs 22 billion in Balochistan and Rs 35 billion loss in terms of fruits in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) due to non availability of the transportation and processing facilities. The secretary said Pakistan is importing edible oil worth Rs 300 billion but with the promotion of olive cultivation in the areas of GB and FATA, we would be able to even export the olive edible oil within seven years.