The government is presenting a mini budget on 23rd of Jan, the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad and other organizations have called to increase in agriculture research budget and withdrawal of GST on farm machinery.
Growers were experiencing world highest input cost of agriculture production, the PKI president Khalid Kkhokhar recommended the government to discontinue the 2 percent GST on fertilizers and announce a 30 percent flat subsidy on import of pesticide in the mini budget.
This step would cost government a loss of less than Rs 2 billion revenue but increase in agriculture productivity diversely.
By lessening the price of agriculture inputs and taking practical steps to bring improvement in livestock sector would bring revolution in the farmer community and agriculture sector.
Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Ministry of Livestock budget was around Rs 30 billion in 2009-10 but now all provinces’ allocation is less than Rs 15 billion.
The dealings of agriculture sector which contributes over 19.5 percent in GDP and earns over 70 percent foreign exchange from cotton and other commodities. The sector was a foundation livelihood for 48 percent of country’s labor force.
Sale of tractors has abridged from 70,000 per year to less than 40,000 per year. To revive the sale and lower the prices of tractors and other machinery, the government should announce withdrawal of GST on the machinery in mini budget.