KARACHI: The Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) on Wednesday requested the Federal Board of Revenue not to levy sales tax as local producers are already burdened with payment of import duties and sales tax on inputs of producing processed chicken products.

The GST will cause grievous injury to the small processing sector as well as adversely affect consumers, Chairman PPA Khalid Salim Malik said.

He said the provision of zero rating provided to poultry processing sector served as an impetus to enhance processing. The provision was withdrawn in 2013-14 and increased the gap between the cost of production of wet market vis-à-vis the poultry processing sector. The PPA chief said sales tax exemption will expand the poultry processing to yield additional Rs3.8 billion.

The association aims to move 81.6 million birds into the processing sector.

The additional advantage of expansion in processing would be the documentation of undocumented live bird economy generating further revenues from not only processing but also from allied sectors like packaging, distribution, advertising, etc.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2016