Meeting recommended enhancing import duty on whey milk and powdered milk while fisheries, Poultry, Red meat sectors included in the zero rated sectors

LAHORE (06-06-17): The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha (S.I) chaired a meeting on discussion of Federal Budget 2017-18 in the (UVAS) syndicate room to discuss the implications with particular reference to Livestock sector here on Tuesday. The faculty members, representatives from PPA (Pakistan Poultry Association), Dairy industry and farmer community attended the discussion session and gave their suggestions.

The meeting recommended enhancing import duty on whey milk and powdered milk at least 75%. It was also recommended that Fisheries, Poultry and Red meat sectors should be included in the zero rated sectors.

It was suggested by representative of PPA that the Government should give package for poultry meat processing industry, as this industry is fastly moving towards processing era. He further added that special incentive package should be introduced to reduce the cost of poultry feed ingredients which was increased substantially back in 2013. He pointed out that heavy import duties/taxes on main feed ingredients are badly affecting the poultry feed industry of Pakistan. Talking about the accuracy of numerical figures of recent Economic survey, he reiterated that the whole planning depends on these figures thus he proposed that Government should cross verify these facts and figures by giving research projects to UVAS Business School.

The representative from Dairy industry shown his concern that in this budget even name of Dairy industry or Livestock sector was not explicitly mentioned which is not fair for this very important sector. He further added that Dairy processing sector in at last verge of its viability and prudent policies must be adopted to safe it. Likewise, Prof. Dr. Talat Pasha emphasized on taking necessary steps to revive the poor farmer who is being crushed based on the fact that he is not being given due share out of long struggle of Dairy farming.

Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor expressed the importance of such discussion and said that it is the responsibility of universities to explore and debate on such aspects of Budget for the larger benefit of society. He also emphasized the impact of Policy research paper on import of whey milk/powdered milk on the Budget by which the duty was 25% increased. He said that livestock is major source of livelihood of poor farmers and key to revival of the crisis-hit agriculture sector, therefore we need to focus on the profitability of small holder farmers. He further emphasized that this must be enhanced to at least 75%. Furthermore, the house gave a couple of other recommendations. It was recommended that three sub-sectors including Red meat, Fisheries and Poultry must also be added in zero rating related sectors.

Earlier Chairman DEBM, UVAS Business School Dr Rana Muhammad Ayyub, explained the impact of the new Federal Budget 2017-18 on Dairy, Poultry, Fisheries and Livestock sectors. He explained custom duties, subsidies and investment opportunities related to Livestock sector in this budget. Dr Tahir Mahmood, Associate Professor explained relevant portion of Economic survey of Pakistan with reference to previous years. As a whole it was very informative discussion which enlightened the participants about the economic factors and their impacts on Livestock sector in particular and farmer`s community in general.

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