KARACHI: Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) has submitted its budget 2016-17 proposals to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), seeking exemption from regulatory duty on the import of grandparent chickens.
PPA Chairman Khalid Saleem Malik submitted the proposals to FBR Member Rehmatullah Khan Wazir and informed him that the entire edifice of the chicken production is dependent upon this very small number of grandparents that are being imported.
He said that it is to be noted that in last November, amendments are brought about in the tariffs to raise additional revenue by imposing regulatory import duties and a 10 percent regulatory import duty is levied on live poultry weighing less than 185 gram falling under PCT Heading 0105-1100 which are essentially day old grandparent (GP) stocks. He said that the GP stocks are the foundation of poultry production sector, which are not being produced within the country. Earlier, the import duty was five percent.
However, now there is five percent import duty plus 10 percent regulatory duty with a total being 15 percent, he added. He informed that there are only three genetic companies in the world, which produce these and sell them at a very high price ranging from $25-30 per chick for the production of parent stock of females and males.
Khalid said, “There are already an import duty of five percent; an additional 10 percent would only increase the cost of the seed, which produces parent stocks and parent stocks produces day old chicks which subsequently produce broilers that are consumed by consumers including the lower income group as the chicken at times is even cheaper than pulses and vegetables.”
