Different farmer organisations came up with a mixed reaction over the federal budget proposed for 2018-19 and urged the government to announce flat electricity rates for the agricultural tube-wells and withdraw levies on diesel as it will bring down the cost of input for the growers.
Pakistan Muttahida Kissan Mahaz (PMKM) Chairman Ayub Khan Mayo said that the growers are happy on bringing down the sales tax on import of agricultural implements and import of seed as 95 percent of seed is imported in the country. However, he said that the government should announce to make subsidy given on electricity to agricultural tube-wells permanent instead of revising it after every three months.
He said the government should also withdraw levies on diesel as annually Rs 300 billion worth diesel is used by the agricultural sector and withdrawal of 40 percent levies will remove heavy burden on the farming.
Mayo also urged the government to revive the Research & Development (R&D) activities in the country to develop local seeds and local agricultural machinery.
Kissan Board Pakistan (KBP) Central President Chaudhry Nisar Ahmad in his immediate reaction to the federal budget said it seemed that the agriculture was again not the first priority of the rulers. He claimed that no subsidy had been announced on agricultural inputs, pesticides and electricity. He claimed that the economy could not improve without assigning top priority to agriculture. He urged the government to withdraw markup on agricultural loans. He urged the opposition to play its role so that this anti-farmer budget should not be approved by the parliament.
Ch Nisar also claimed that the government should have exempted agricultural inputs and implements from sales tax completely. He also lamented the government for not allocating any fund for development of livestock and claimed it created disappointment among the farmers.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.