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ICCI chief urges govt

to bring agriculture

sector under tax net

ISLAMABAD: Khalid Javaid, Preisdent, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Friday appealed to the Government to levy tax on the agriculuture sector for generating revenues to augment national development in the country.

In a statement, the ICCI chief noted that agricutlure is the back bone of the country's economy. The agriculturists produce crops and earn substantial income from their lands but they do not pay income tax to the government which collects revenue for the uplift and well being of its citizens.

Khalid Javaid said that government has levied agricultural wealth tax but only 1450 agricultural wealth tax returns were filed during the last fiscal year and only a small amount of Rs 25 lakh was paid as agricultural wealth tax by agriculturists throughout the country. He appealed to the government to improve the collection of agricultural wealth tax system and bring into tax net all eligible tax payers.

Khalid Javaid said that all other sectors including private sector, corporate sector, industrialists, traders, government servants etc, have filed 4,25,000 income tax returns and paid tax amounting to Rs 61.4 billion to the government as income tax during the last fiscal year.

He said that while there exist consensus in the country to tax agriculture sector, it is high time to motivate the farmers, owners of vegetable and fruit farms and landlords to pay income tax in a spirit of partriotism and thus contribute in a big way for boosting national development.

He said that from the income so received, the government could take measures in boosting agriclutre sector specially the research and development wing, raising allocation in social sectors such as education and health and upgrading rural infrastructure.

The ICCI chief suggested that government should also motivate the agriculturists to establish agro-based industries and set up special zones for it. Fruit preserving industry and dairy farming have great potentials to grow, he added.-APP