LAHORE, April 10: The Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association has urged the government to reduce taxes on edible oil import to prevent an increase in vegetable ghee and cooking oil prices.

At a press conference here on Monday, PVMA chairman Syed Yawar Ali said the government was charging 40 per cent customs duty on the import of edible oil and had levied 15 per cent general sales tax in addition. It had also started charging an additional Rs1,000 per ton on all edible oil imports recently.

He said edible oil was an essential food item and required exemption from taxes or minimum possible rates of taxes. He said the manufacturers had kept the prices of ghee and cooking oil stable for the past six years, but they were no longer in a position to do so on account of an increase in production cost owing to increase in oil prices besides gas and electricity tariff.

He said prices were likely to start increasing in the next few months, and there was a likelihood of 10 per cent increase by December in case the government provided no relief to the industry in the form of reduction in import duty and sales tax.

He also stressed the need for announcing a five-year industrial policy so that the industrialists could make proper investment plans for future.