KARACHI - The Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) has opposed the imposition of Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) on poultry sector and withdrawal of exemption/zero rating on processed chicken.
Chairman Pakistan Poultry Association Khalil Sattar, while addressing a press conference in Karachi on Tuesday, said that the government is contemplating to levy 15 per cent RGST on poultry feed while exempting chicken and eggs and withdrawing zero-rating on processed branded chicken which would result in a levy of 15 per cent GST on the sector.
He urged the govt not to change the current GST taxation status of the entire poultry sector as the sector is making tremendous contributions in providing protein to fight malnutrition and under-nutrition in a nation where one out of every five children dies before attaining the age of 5 years because of malnutrition and under-nutrition at ever-decreasing real prices.
He said, “Today the real price of chicken is 9.75 per cent cheaper than it was in the year 1998-99 whereas, during the same period, mutton and beef prices have increased by 130 per cent and 153pc respectively”. He stated that poultry product prices based on truly demand and supply mechanism, as such the increase cannot be passed on to the consumers at will. He indicated that a large number of farms will close down and the prices of chicken meat could, in the face of short supply, increase by 100pc from Rs175/Kg to Rs350/Kg. He emphasised that this phenomena of short supply and high prices was amply demonstrated as an aftermath of bird flu when the prices had soared more than 150pc. In such a case, chicken will be produced only for the upper class of consumers, he said.
The Chairman further emphasised that withdrawal of zero-rating on processed, branded, value added chicken attracting 15 per cent GST, would result in defeating the government’s own policy of 2006 when the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and Ministry of Commerce had launched a policy of encouraging value addition to attain qualitative and quantitative objectives.
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