LAHORE: Pakistan Industrial & Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has welcomed the proposed cut in General Sales Tax (GST) on tractor industry saying that further decrease in GST would be a bigger favour, not only to this industry but to the agriculture sector.
In a press statement PIAF Chairman Malik Tahir Javed stated that proposal of bringing down GST on tractor industry from 17 per cent to 10 per cent would save tractor industry from devastation. Lower GST on tractor industry would pave the way for agricultural revolution in the country and would ensure food security for the masses, he added.
“It would be better if Federal Board of Revenue and other policy making authorities take stakeholders on board while taking industry related decisions,” said PIAF chairman. He said that increase in GST on tractor industry had not only dropped the sale of tractors but also forced tractor manufacturers to close down their operations.
The chairman said that policy makers must have awareness regarding the vast impact of raise in taxes on tractor industry. He said that Pakistan lags far behind India in crop yield, crop intensity and number of tractors per hectare. “Pakistan today needs 800,000 more tractors to match India in per hectare tractor population, he added.”
He said that an industry with installed capacity of 100,000 units per annum is expected to close the current financial year with less than 30,000 units.
The PIAF Chairman attributed the drop in tractor sales to unemployment for thousands of skilled workers who work in hundreds of factories producing tractor parts for the tractor assembly plants. Employment in rural Pakistan is also a related matter as tractor is a major source of employment generation in the form of drivers, mechanics, and spare parts/lubricant suppliers, he added.
Malik Tahir Javed said that cut in GST on tractor industry was a good omen and it would help revive the stalled tractor production and industry.
