ISLAMABAD, May 1: The International Monetary Fund has proposed to the government to levy 15 per cent general sales tax on bricks and cement blocks from the next financial year.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Friday that the levy was one of the conditionalities of the IMF's programme of Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). The decision, if taken, would be announced in the budget for 2004-05.

According to the sources, the levy of GST on these items was not practical and it would cause harm to end-users and production of these items.

The bricks and cement blocks industry employed a number of people in the rural areas, the sources said and added the levy of GST on that sector would not only result in unemployment, but would also hamper construction activities in the country.