Taxing agriculture sector pivotal: Tarin

KARACHI: Former minister of finance Shaukat Tarin has declared that the government cannot increase its resources without bringing the agriculture sector into the tax net.

He further said that the tax on agriculture should be levied by the government without any further delay.

Addressing a gathering of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (Kati) here on Tuesday, the former minister said that bringing the agricultural sector into the tax net does not mean that a duty would be imposed on poor farmers.

Instead, the tax should be imposed on farmers having an annual income of over Rs 200,000 just like other sectors.

Tarin supported the stance of the trade and industry on the Value Added Tax (Vat) and said that if the business community demands, it should be enforced gradually in one or two years’ time.

He said that he had given a plan for the restructuring public sector units as the losses by these sector units has reached now Rs250 billion, which should be plugged.

He also said that the revenues can be increased by Rs700 billion by enhancing resource mobilisation and enlarging the tax net.

Tarin said that the imposition of the Capital Value Tax (CVT) on the real estate sector was wrong, but it had been imposed in the absence of the NFC award.

He said that the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) should be levied on stock markets in the forthcoming budget.

Tarin said: “Dependence on foreign loans cannot guarantee good governance and we should go for resource generation for economic sovereignty”.

The guest of honour, Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan said that the industry’s input has not been taken into the preparation of the federal budget and the business community has certain reservations in this regard.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 2nd, 2010.