National Assembly told Cotton, rice output dropped in FY11

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance informed the National Assembly on Friday that production of cotton and rice had declined by 11.3 percent and 29.9 percent, respectively, during 2010-11 against previous year.

Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh in response to a question by Nighat Parveen about increase/decrease in the production of major agriculture crops, informed the House in a written reply that cotton production decreased from 12.931 million bales in 2009-10 to 11.460 million bales in 2010-11, reflecting a decrease of 11.3 percent, whereas production of rice decreased from 6.882 million tons in 2009-10 to 4.823 million tons in 2010-11, showing a decline of 29.9 per cent. Sugarcane and maize production increased by 12 percent and 2.4 percent during 2010-11 over the previous year.

The figures submitted in the National Assembly showed that production of sugarcane went up from 49.372 million tons in 2009-10 to 55.308 million tons in 2010-11 and production of maize increased from 3.261 million in 2009-10 to and 3.341 million tons in 2010-11.

Replying to another question, the Minister stated that it is not a fact that the target fixed for the collection of customs duty had not been achieved during 2010-11. The Customs Wing of FBR collected Rs.184.6 billion against the target of Rs.173.3 billion fixed for the customs duty for financial year 2010-11 which is 11.39 percent higher than the target for FY 2010-11.

In 2010-11 the customs revenue target was surpassed through rationalisation of tariff, improvement in valuation, recovery of arrears, effective enforcement and monitoring. The same strategy will continue to achieve the target for the financial year 2011-12 with increased vigor.