‘Dairy, poultry be included in zero rated sectors’

LAHORE:University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) arranged a post-budget dialogue focusing on the livestock sector here on Thursday.

According to a press release, the representatives from poultry, dairy and meat industries and senior university faculty discussed the budget implications especially on poultry, dairy and meat sectors during the session co-chaired by UVAS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad and University of Education Lahore VC Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha.

The participants recommended that dairy, poultry and meat should be included in the zero rated sectors with focus on reducing the input cost of livestock related businesses. It was demanded that the concessions of general sales tax and duties enjoyed by the agriculture sector should also be extended to the dairy, meat and related industries in true letter and spirit. The participants also recommended enhancing import duty on skimmed milk.

A great concern was shown by the poultry industry stakeholders that the government had started intervening in the price fixing of poultry/broiler meat which would have negative repercussions for the industry. The representatives from dairy industry stressed on the need for reverting the increased sales tax on value-added products which had been proposed to increase from 10 per cent to 17 per cent.