HYDERABAD: Sindh Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahu on Saturday said the federal government had levied 10 per cent sales tax on cotton ginning factories which has now been raised to 17pc.

In a statement emailed to Dawn, he said the federal government had already destroyed agriculture sector through its wrong policies.

“Sales tax was never levied on ginning factories and the credit for this goes to this selected prime minister. Tax was never levied on cotton in the country until the ginning process. Taxes are levied on post-ginning stages,” the statement said.

Mr Rahu said due to flawed economic policies of the federal government, cotton growers and cotton industry had been destroyed. He regretted that 1,300 ginning factories were functioning in the country and now only 440 were working as the rest had been closed. He said the levy of tax on ginning and cotton seed would be detrimental to the economy.

Mr Rahu said this tax would be paid by growers and not ginning factories. “Ginners would pay this tax and recover it from cotton growers,” the statement said.

“This decision would lead to unemployment and it is feared that ginning factories would face closure and labourers would be rendered jobless,” the statement added.

Mr Rahu demanded that the federation give ginning factories facilities including exemption in taxes and concession in electricity rates.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2021