Support for farmers: Ministry opens ‘special account’ with SBP

Will facilitate provinces in depositing their share of fertiliser subsidy

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Food Security and Research will open a special bank account with the State Bank of Pakistan where provinces can deposit their share of the fertiliser subsidy in order to avail the subsidised DAP fertiliser in its domain.

In this regard, the ministry issued a final notification on Friday.

According to the notification, the account will be entitled “Subsidy on Phosphoric Fertilizer” and provincial governments will deposit their share amount in this account to avail the subsidised DAP fertiliser in the respective provinces or authorise the federal government to transfer the amount on their behalf after making deduction from the National Finance Commission (NFC) transfer.

Under the “Support Package for Agriculture Sector,” a subsidy amounting to Rs20 billion has been announced by the federal government. However, 50% of the subsidy will be disbursed by the provincial governments as per their requirement for the fertiliser. The federal government has already deposited its due share of Rs10 billion in the Sales Tax Account of Federal Board of Revenue for appropriate adjustment in lieu of the subsidy.

Under the notification, representatives of ministry of national food security and research, National Fertilizer Development Centre and State Bank of Pakistan will assist the FBR on technical issues while implementing the subsidy package.

The subsidy will be given till the amount has been exhausted and only to those commercial importers or manufacturers who are registered with the Sale Tax Regime of the FBR.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2015.

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