‘New tax may raise agricultural production cost by 25pc’

LAHORE: The Pakistan Hi-Tech Hybrid Seed Association has warned that the recently-imposed General Sales Tax is likely to increase the seed prices in the country by 25 per cent, forcing the farmers to use traditional uncertified low-yield seed of various food and cash crops.

"The imposition of tax has badly affected the country's nascent hybrid seed industry, but it will ultimately trouble the farming community which is already facing shortage of fertilizer," PHHSA Chairman Shahzad Malik said while talking to members of the Agriculture Journalists Association here on Wednesday. He said the development of hybrid rice varieties and their successful cultivation in Sindh and Punjab has led to double the paddy crop over the last 11 years i.e. from 4.03 million tonnes in 2010 to 8.41 million tonnes in 2021. "The taxes imposed under mini-budget may hamper the process of hybridization in paddy and other important cash and food crops," he warned and said that the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) and the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) have already rejected the imposition of the GST on seeds as such levies could only lead to reduction in the production of raw materials for these two sectors. The PHHSA chairman said there is the need for hybridization of wheat and cotton seed too as China and India have tripled their cotton production by producing hybrid BT cotton varieties.

Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan's leading plant breeding expert Dr Shafiqur Rehman said the cultivation of certified wheat seed can lead to a 15 per cent increase in the cereal production. But the imposition of GST is likely to jack the per acre wheat seed expenditure by Rs 700. He said the promotion of maize hybrid seed has increased the corn crop production from 6 million tonnes to 8 million tonnes.

REAP Chairman Ali Hussam Asghar said his association is against the imposition of GST in the seed sector. He said it is the certified paddy seed that helped increase the rice exports from $300 million to $2 billion in a period of 15 years. Agriculture Journalists Association President Muhammad Luqman, LEJA President Sudhir Chaudhry and AJA General Secretary Amjad Mahmood also spoke.