NOWADAYS inland aquaculture farming, commonly known as fish and shrimp farming, is an emerging sector in Pakistan and is part of the Prime Minister Agriculture Emergency Programme 2021. Yet we are far behind our neighbour countries in the said sector, and the government needs to pay more attention in this regard.

Recently, the National Assembly passed the Finance (Supplementary) Act, 2022, abolishing almost all exemptions in sales tax that were available under the sixth schedule of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.

Fish feed was also exempted under the said Act. Abolishing the said exemption will create hurdles in the way of promoting inland aquaculture farming and will also hurt the government’s Agriculture Emergency Programme because almost all farmers have been producing fish for the last three to four years using fish feed.

There is a need to encourage the farmers to increase the production that will help increase the nation’s wealth in gross domestic product (GDP) terms. Charging sales tax on fish feed will increase the cost of production, which, in turn, will discourage the farmers to use fish feed and will also work against the growth of inland aquaculture.

The poultry and cattle feed is exempted under the Sales Tax Act, 1990. Therefore, fish and shrimp feed should also be included in the afore-mentioned section to let the industry grow.

Haider Ali
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2022