June 16, 2017
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said poultry industry was ignored in the budget as most of their proposals were not accepted.
This industry has a great potential to become leading player in the 300 billion dollar global halal industry which will also help country reduce unemployment, tackle issue of food security and earn foreign exchange, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the recent budget has allowed reduced duty on the import of poultry machinery but nothing has been offered to the existing players.
The poultry farmers had also demanded reduction of the sales tax on locally-made machinery which has not been honoured, he added.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that policymakers should not include clauses that hit local poultry sector in the trade agreements while they should try to revisit the trade deals that have been finalised.
He said that the is no duty on import of value-added poultry products from Malaysia while products from China attract 10 to 16 percent duty and the poultry imported from India attracts only five percent duty.
This seems unjustified as local industry pay 20 percent customs duty on inputs, 15 percent regulatory duty and 17 percent sales tax.
The country is producing around 1.4 billion birds annually and if only 15 percent of the production is transformed into value-added products, the government will get additional revenue of Rs.5 billion, he said.
