Agriculturalists have asked their elected representatives in parliament to oppose any move to levy taxes and withdraw subsidies on agriculture.
“New taxes should not be imposed without endorsement from legislators,” said the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture on Friday.
The chamber’s Dr Nadeem Qamar, who is the brother of federal minister Syed Naveed Qamar, presided over the meeting which was attended by the chairman of the Sub-Committee on Agriculture Zaheeruddin, Sindh Cotton Association’s Mian Rashid Mehmood and the Sindh Abadgar Board’s Abdul Majeed Nizamani.
The chamber vowed to press their elected representatives, MNAs and senators to speak in their interest in parliament.
In a statement issued after the meeting, they said that growers would discuss this with the business community, traders and industrialists in order to decide on a uniform course of action.
The agriculturalists believe that the government is being forced by certain quarters to impose taxes and remove subsidies, which would affect small growers and hence affect its vote bank.
The chamber demands a removal of new taxes on farm income, a return to the subsidies on farm inputs and the exclusion of the new 10 per cent tax on the income of middlemen.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2011.
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