December 6, 2001	Thursday	Ramazan 20, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: The International Monetary Fund has deferred its conditionality of levying 15 per cent General Sales Tax on locally produced vegetable ghee and cooking oil.

The levy of GST was to come into force from Dec 1, as was agreed under the standby agreement with the Fund, a source told Dawn here on Wednesday.

“The decision is believed to have been taken to provide every possible help to Pakistan to revive its sick economy as Islamabad pledged to provide full support to international community in combating terrorism in the aftermath of the terror blitz in the US,” the source remarked.

It had been agreed with the Fund that in the first week of the current month, GST would be levied on the vegetable ghee and cooking oil under the Fund conditionality for the last standby arrangement.

Earlier, to give some relief to Islamabad, the IMF had deferred levying of 15 per cent GST on tractors and tubewells, which had to come into force from Oct 1, 2001.

The government has already extended the GST net to all agriculture inputs except tractors and tubewells.

When contacted, member direct taxes and official spokesman for the CBR, Vakil Ahmed Khan said the government had postponed levying of GST on the cooking oil and ghee due to the slump in the market.

He, however, said that it might be levied sometime in the near future.