LAHORE: Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) activists along with their children, livestock and poultry will protest on Feb 14, Valentine’s Day, in Multan against the imposition of taxes on the agriculture sector, costlier fertiliser and other farm inputs.

The PKI is calling the protest ‘Speechless Animals and Helpless Farmers’, saying the protest will be later taken to other districts of the province before moving towards the federal capital.

“Farmers will be mourning on this day to save the future of their children, coming generations and economy of their beloved motherland,” says PKI President Khalid Mahmood Khokhar.

He says farmers’ representatives held a series of meetings with the government authorities to protest 17 per cent general sales tax on farm produce, additional 3pc GST on seeds, high rates of electricity billing for tubewells, manifold increase in diesel and fertiliser prices in the wake of Supplementary Finance Bill 2021 but to no avail as they were told the steps were being taken on IMF directions.

Farmers argue that as they have never benefited from the loans and borrowings by the government from the IMF, why they are forced to pay high taxes on seeds, electricity and diesel as per demands of international money lenders.

If the steps are not withdrawn, farming will become uneconomical, he warns.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2022