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Junejo outlines grower-friendly plan
MULTAN: Outlining a grower-friendly plan to boost agriculture
sector, Federal Minister for Agriculture Kher Muhammad Junejo
has said, government is endeavouring hard to save farmers from
facing the impact of taxes levied on the suggestion of
international financial institutions.
"Government is well aware of pivotal role of agriculture in
our economy and despite financial constraints, we are taking
all possible steps to improve it," the federal minister told
the delegations of farmers and ginners during a meeting at
circuit house on Thursday. He said, whenever President Gen
Pervez Musharraf talked about plans to improve economy,
agriculture remained his top priority in achieving the goal.
He disclosed that the government has planned to establish
10,000 tube wells in the country to solve the problem of water
shortage. Some 3000 tube wells would be established in Punjab,
5000 in Sindh and 1000 each in Baluchistan and NWFP, he said
adding: "Fifty per cent of the expenditure would be borne by
the government while the rest by the growers."
He said, government has also decided to establish three
quality control laboratories in the country for
export-oriented agriculture products so that these could be
checked before being exported. "We had big wheat crop last
year, but could not export it in reasonable quantity due to
absence of an effective quality control system," he lamented.
He said, our main problem is not the production, but the
absence of a quality control mechanism for agriculture
produce. He congratulated the farmers of the country, who gave
bumper wheat crop last year and yielded a good cotton crop
this year despite water shortage. The federal minister said,
Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) will stay in the market
to purchase one million cotton bales despite the fact that it
would be bearing loss due to offering the price more than the
international market price.
He said, TCP would purchase good quality cotton and a premium
of Rs200 has been offered for better quality and
contamination-free cotton. The amount of agriculture loaning
has been enhanced from Rs45 billion to 65 billion and
government is actively considering to further increase it to
Rs100 billion, he said.
Banks other than ADBP including Muslim Commercial Bank, Habib
Bank and United Bank have also been advised by the government
to extend agriculture loans to the growers. Efforts were also
being made to reduce the mark-up rate on agriculture loans
from 14 per cent to ten per cent, he added. He said, the
documentation completed once for obtaining loans would be
valid for the growers for three years.
On government's efforts to avoid impact of taxation on
farmers, he said, 15 per cent GST was levied on pesticides but
to save ordinary farmer from its impact government reduced the
duty on raw material on pesticide from 20 per cent to five per
cent. He said, we would export the surplus wheat this year
also so as to ensure good return to the growers.
He said, support price of wheat was Rs300 per maund when its
international market price could not go beyond Rs240. A
summary suggesting enhancement in existing support price of
wheat has been sent to Pervez Musharraf for discussion on it
by the cabinet, the minister told a group of newsmen after the
meeting.
November 3, 2001
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