LAHORE: The farmers have demanded relief package for the diary sector as the additional taxes have increased cost of doing business by seven percent.
Society Watch President Khalid Mahmoud, in a statement, said that due to increase in taxes, price of processed milk has also increased by Rs 6 per litre and reducing its demand by 20 per cent and hurting 600,000 farmers linked to business of processed milk.
Khalid Mahmoud said that around 700 million dollars have been invested in the dairy sector in last five years which needed encouragement but government has reduced duty on import of milk from Saarc countries to 15 percent while India has slapped 68 percent duty on import of milk.
Pakistan is producing around 55 million tonnes of milk, production in increasing by 4 pc per annum while demand in increasing by 15 percent annually in country while the global demand is set to increase by 36 percent in nine years, he said.
He demanded 100 percent duty on import of skimmed milk and dairy products to safeguard interests of 40 million dairy farmers in the informal sector otherwise this business will not remain viable for many.
Pakistan has witnessed closure of 3.5 million dairy farms in the last nineteen years, a trend which must be reversed through intervention, he said.
