LAHORE, Jan 14: Textile millers have urged the government to withdraw sales tax from raw and ginned cotton to allow farmers to sell their product directly to the mills.

The demand was made at a meeting of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) with Commerce Minister Humanyun Akhtar here on Tuesday.

“If sales tax is withdrawn from the cotton stage, it would not leave any significant impact on the revenue generation ability of the government as almost 90-95 per cent sales tax collected at the cotton stage is refunded,” Aptma chairman Anjum Salim told the minister.

However, he said, the Central Board of Revenue could continue to collect sales tax from spinners and weavers.

Another Aptma member Akbar Sheikh said ginning was considered a “service” industry throughout the world and the farmers were allowed to sell their cotton directly to the textiles mills.