ICST demands relaxation for agriculture sector in budget

Islamabad: Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST) on Sunday demanded purposeful relaxations for the agriculture sector in the upcoming budget. Agriculture is the backbone of the economy and strengthening it should be a key priority of the government, it said.

The agricultural sector should be given a package aimed at improving lives of millions of farmers and improving the output which is not impressive, said Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders, Shahid Rasheed Butt.

The proposals of different stakeholders should be taken seriously to improve the agriculture sector which is the major source of income for the majority of the population, he added. Shahid Rasheed Butt said that developed countries continue to pay subsidies to farmers to the tune of billions of dollars but the situation at home is different.

He said that government should abolish sales tax on import of agricultural machinery and introduce reduced as well as uniform sales tax on all types of fertilisers. Dependence on groundwater has increased therefore power tariff for agricultural tube wells should be reduced to propel production.

Banks should ease requirements for agricultural loans as the same encourage farmers to seek loans from loan sharks which are very costly but easy to obtain. The government should continue extending and improving various subsidies and incentives already given to the farmers and proposals and recommendations in this regard should be sincerely considered and examined to make them part of the budget.