Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday said a uniform tax policy on agriculture was being evolved to bring the sector under the tax net and the federal and provincial governments were in consultation with relevant stakeholders and representatives of the sector to seek their input for formulating the proposed policy. Talking to a group of MNAs at the Parliament House, the prime minister said he had directed his finance team to find out the reasons behind the undue price hike of agricultural inputs.
He told MNAs that the interests of small landholders would be protected in the proposed agriculture tax policy and the concern of parliamentarians from the rural areas about the sales tax on agriculture inputs was understandable. Gilani told the lawmakers that the government had earmarked an amount of Rs 730 billion in the next PSDP, of which a major portion would go to the provinces. He said additional Rs 500 billion would be given to the provinces under the 7th NFC Award.
.He said the government had allocated Rs 32.5 billion for expediting power and water projects for containing the energy crisis. Gilani said global recession had made fuel prices go up from $30 a barrel in 2008 to $120 per barrel presently. The devastating floods and heavy expenditure on security had also strained the economy, he added. The prime minister said despite devolving a number of ministries to the provinces, the federal government would continue to bear the expenditure of Rs 35 billion against the salaries of employees of the devolved ministries. He said the government had substantially increased the salaries of armed and police personnel and government employees in the last three years, which was an unprecedented move.
Gilani said the tax culture was non-existent in the country, but the government was making serious efforts to improve tax to GDP ratio for the country to achieve self-reliance. He asked the legislators to think of ways to expand the tax net, but keep in view that small landholders were not burdened. Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told the lawmakers that the finance team had already been instructed to investigate undue increase in the prices of tractor, agricultural machinery, fertilizers and pesticides and stressed upon the need to evolve a system that secured the small landowners.
The meeting was attended Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Minister Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, Water and Power Minister Naveed Qamar, Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeemul Haq, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Tariq Mehmood Bajwa, Rana Muhammad Saeed Khan, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Sijjadul Hassan, Liaqat Ali Khan, Rai Ghualm Mujtaba Kharal, Syed Sumsam Ali Bukhari, Mehmood Hayat Khan, Mian Abdul Sattar, Jehangir Tareen, Javed Iqbal Warraich, Nazir Ahmed Bughio, Mir Ejaz Hussain Jakhrani, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Syed Amir Ali Shah, Nawab Muhammad Yousaf Talpur, Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur and Roshanuddin Junejo.
