June 19, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 18, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, June 18: The government has decided to withdraw 15 per cent general sales tax on agricultural processing machinery to link up production of agricultural commodities with the industry.

According to a press release issued here on Wednesday the concession has been allowed on processing, grading, packing and preservation machinery for fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Pakistan produces 6.5 million tons of fruits and 5.5 million tons of vegetables each year. Because of perishable nature of these commodities the post-harvest losses are about 25 per cent.

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock has worked out the cumulative losses to the growers of fruits and vegetables at Rs50 billion each year.

The move is investment-friendly decision that will bring investment in this area.

Similarly, the dairy and dairy products is also highly important. Pakistan produces about 33 million tons of milk that is mostly concentrated in the rural areas. The government has also withdrawn 15 per cent GST on the machinery for dairy and dairy products.

This decision will promote dairy industry. Other areas where GST has been withdrawn on agro-processing machinery is rice, grains and dried legumes (dals).

A large area of Pakistan has saline-sodic soils that need reclamation through adding amendments to the soils.Recently, the sulphuric acid technology was introduced wherein a generator is installed at the mouth of the watercourse, mainly tube-well water.

This keeps on generating sulphuric acid and mixing it with water. The acid, by increasing solubility of calcium from native lime in soils, helps to improve health of these problem soils.

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