Fertilisers Importers Council has written a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over the non-payment of subsidy claims. The letter stated that the government had promised the DAP importers for payment of subsidy claims within 15 days of the receipt submission, but the payments are pending for more than 11 months now.
They appealed to the government to discontinue the subsidy scheme on DAP from the new fiscal year.
“We request the government to ensure low-cost DAP fertiliser for the farmers by entirely removing the import and sales stage taxes on DAP such as GST, extra Withholding Tax and Further Tax, which total around Rs 550/bag of DAP fertiliser,” the letter stated.
The importers have done their best to participate in the Subsidy Scheme and assist the government in its objective by selling imported DAP fertiliser at subsidised prices at their entire risk and cost in the hope of being refunded the subsidy by the government, the council said.
As of May 26, 2017, subsidy claims of approximately Rs 1 billion are pending payment to importers for all imported DAP sales from June 2016 to April 2017.
The letter further read, “The huge pending amount is not allowing us [importers] to contribute to the subsidy scheme anymore starting from the new fiscal year 2017/18.”