Withholding tax removal on farms demanded

STAFF REPORT LAHORE: Farmers of Punjab have demanded of the provincial government to withdraw the decision of imposing withholding tax on trade of agricultural commodities as slapping of this tax would put extra burden on the farmers community who are already bearing the brunt of the last year’s massive floods and subsequent losses to their lands.

“The decision to impose 3.5 percent withholding tax on trade of agricultural inputs is unjust,” Central President Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) Sardar Zafar Hussein Khan said this while speaking at a ceremony organised by the board for distribution of cash, fertilizers, diesel and other agricultural inputs among flood affected farmers of district Rajanpur.

He claimed that farmers are already paying numerous other taxes and urged the government to review the decision.

Khan said that anti-agriculture policies of the government had increased the problems of farming community manifold and assured the farmers that the board would raise voice against all wrong steps taken by the government regarding agricultural sector.

The KBP leader also criticised unavailability of canal water in Rojhan (Rajapur) and said it was causing a huge loss to agriculture. He said that water was not available for drinking to even animals of this area.

http://www.technologytimes.pk/mag/2011/jan11/issue04/withholding_tax_removal_on.php