Growers warn of protest movement if agriculture income tax imposed

HYDERABAD: A growers’ body has said the agricultural sector is in dire straits, demanding immediate withdrawal of the decision to levy the agricultural income tax. It has warned that if it is not withdrawn, a nationwide protest movement will be conducted with all the farmers’ organisations

The demand was made at a meeting of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture held on Saturday at the headquarters in Hyderabad. The meeting was presided over by Central President Syed Miran Muhammad Shah through a video link from Karachi.

Agriculturalists of Karachi, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Nawabshah, Khairpur Mirs, Sukkur, Ghotki and Larkana participated through video link.

The growers said that there are reports that the federal government is imposing a heavy agricultural income tax at the request of the IMF, which we completely reject because it will cause economic massacre of farmers

They said the income tax is imposed on income. when there is no agricultural income, then what is the income tax imposed on?

Growers demanded that the prices of agricultural machinery, seeds, hybrid seeds, fertilizers, diesel, etc., used in agriculture at this time have increased drastically, and the farmers are suffering from a severe economic crisis, while there is an extraordinary decrease in the number of agricultural species due to which the agriculture sector is completely in deficit, and it is impossible for the farmers to pay the agricultural income tax.

The farmers warned and said that if the federal government imposes the agricultural income tax by force, they will launch a strong protest movement with all the farmers’ organizations in the country.

The farmers expressed serious concern about the cotton situation and said that due to the temperature of 43 to 44 degrees in Sindh for three consecutive months, the cotton crop is suffering a severe blow due to which 10 maunds of cotton per acre of cotton are being harvested with great difficulty, because the cotton crop cannot tolerate more than 35 to 36 degrees celcius.

The farmers said that the Minister for Agriculture of Sindh Sardar Muhammad Bux Mehar had promised to give 11 thousand rupees per maund of cotton to the farmers in the current year, but instead they are getting 6 thousand and 500 rupees per maund.

The growers’ body requested the minister to immediately issue a notification to set the price of cotton at 11,000 rupees per maund as per his promise

The meeting was attended by the general secretary of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Zahid Hussain Bhurgri, Nabi Bux Sathio, Shahnawaz Junjo, Asghar Khan Nonari, Khadim Hussain Bherani, Saeed Sethar, Shahnawaz Jamali, Ghulam Hussain Chachar, Altaf Hussain Shah, Abdul Haleem Memon and other members.