HYDERABAD, June 22: The Sindh Abadgar Board on Sunday criticized both the federal and provincial budgets, saying that both the budget documents overlooked interests of growers, specially cultivators in Sindh.

This was stated by president of the board Abdul Majeed Nizamani in a statement issued here on Sunday.

While welcoming the government’s decision to exempt income tax on small landholdings, he said that allocation of $2 billion for modernizing the textile industry was a good move.

Criticizing the Sindh government, he said that while Punjab had allocated Rs6.436 billion for the development of the agriculture sector, Sindh had allocated Rs951.9 million.

Mr Nizamani said that the Sindh finance minister — who had himself admitted that the province received water 26.5 per cent below its share — had claimed that farm sector recoveries had stood at 85 per cent, which showed the extent of corruption in the irrigation and revenue departments.

Criticizing the government for having done nothing to prepare the country’s farming sector for entry to the World Trade Organization treaty, he said that the government should either provide more farming subsidies or it should withdraw from the WTO treaty, which was to be implemented in 2005.

Wrong government policies, he said, had led to a decrease in cotton production, adding that it had gone down by 1.1 million tonnes.

He said that rebate amounting to Rs1.5 billion was vital to encourage exporters, who had sold off 300,000 tonnes abroad, contributing Rs9.32 billion in GST.

Mr Nizamani said that projects like the greater Thal canal should be shelved and Sindh should be given its share of irrigation water.

Mr Nizamani also called for provision of soft-term farm loans, saying rice mills should also be given funds for modernization.

Stressing the need to develop the country’s sea and land freight sectors, adding that it was vital to improve its freight carriage capacity.