03 October 2004	Sunday	17 Shaban 1425

HYDERABAD, Oct 2: People's Party Parliamentarians MNA Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur has sent telegrams to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, expressing concern over the sale of cotton at the rate of Rs775 per maund against the minimum support price of Rs925 per maund fixed by the government.

In a statement faxed to Dawn on Friday, he said he had raised the issue in the National Assembly in the presence of the prime minister on Sept 24.

Mr Talpur said he was assured by the federal minister for food and agriculture that purchase offices would be set up in Sindh by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to procure cotton from growers at the official price.

He regretted that 60 per cent of Sindh's cotton had been harvested but the TCP had failed to establish purchase centres.

He said as a result cotton growers were forced to sell cotton at the rate of Rs775 per maund. He said perhaps the government was waiting for closure of the cotton season in Punjab only then the TCP would establish purchase centres in Sindh.

He warned if the cotton prices were not stabilized, the PPP would stage protest in the National Assembly.

INCOME TAX: Income Tax Commissioner Sardar Aminullah Khan in a statement issued here on Friday said efforts under taken by the department with regards to the filing of income tax returns, have yielded good results.

He said improvement in terms of number of returns filed and the tax paid along with returns had been witnessed.

Quoting figures, he said, the number of returns this year stood at more than 42,000 as against about 34,000 in the previous year, showing an increase of 22.51 per cent.

Similarly, he said, the income tax paid with the returns stood at Rs26.675 million as against Rs12.868 million last year which show an increase of 107 per cent.

He said a special counter was also opened at the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry secretariat for the first time where more than 2,000 returns were received.

He claimed the tax paying community and the representative bodies of trade and industry had appreciated the smooth system of filing of return to facilitate the tax-payers.