Poultry industry wants decade tax exemption

Chairmen of the Association, Shahid Mahmood Dar and Abdul Basit made this clear at a recent conference, where poultry industry leaders made recommendations for the forthcoming budget. They also demanded that electricity tariffs, which are given to tube-wells for agriculture, should also be applied on poultry farms.

Regarding central budget, Association leaders demanded that subsidy on the export of poultry products and rebate at the rate of 25% should be given to the exporters of eggs and a day-old-chicks.

It was also demanded that the import of grand parent stock be duty free. All registered goods and medicine related to poultry should be imported on duty of maximum 10%. They said that import of poultry medicine should also be free of custom duty and sales tax, particularly items that are not locally produced.

In terms of provincial duties, they said no objection certificate (NOC) fee up to Rs 1000 (US$16.6) should be charged instead of Rs 5 ($0.08) per sq ft. Other proposals included license fees per poultry farm should be Rs 250 ($4.15) per year, license fees for feed mills should be Rs 2000 per year, Hatchery Rs 2000 ($33.17) per year, development charges should be fixed at Rs 500 ($8.29) per acre, building plan fee and malba fee should be exempted and not to be charged from the farmers.

Dar and Basit further stated that the poultry industry was part of the agricultural sector and regulated by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, meaning that the industry is not liable to be taxed under Urban Immovable Property Tax Act 1956, and it was not covered under the categories classified for purpose of levy of property tax.

Therefore property tax, which has been levied on the poultry industry, should be withdrawn forthwith and small poultry farms should be given incentives, like small agriculturists are exempted from all kinds of taxes, they added.