Plead for govt to lift import tax on chicken
In India, the All-Kerala Chicken Merchants and Commission Agencies Association is urging the government to withdraw the 12.5% sales tax levied on import of chicken `to maintain uniformity with other states’.
“No other state in the country is levying tax for importing chicken and even in the state not more than 4% Value Added Tax is charged on food items, including meat,” Association General Secretary M C P Salam stated.
Salam also said that the government was `violating’ norms by levying exorbitant tax. Additionally, several loads of chicken imported from Tamil Nadu were held up at checkposts for non-payment of tax. He said that if the present situation continues “we will be unable to carry on business and several hundreds of families will be deprived of their livelihood.”
Urging the government to fix a common purchase price for the product, he said the dealers were unable to get fair returns after paying huge amount as sales tax. On an average, about 60-70 loads (each load comprising 2500 chicken) were imported daily from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and Rs 5.50 per kilo was paid as tax, he said.
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