ISLAMABAD, AUGUST 19: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has written to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif protesting both the anticipated hike of up to 14 percent on tractors and the unusual price increases of agricultural tractors for low-income farmers with the application of a 10 percent sales tax.
Nabi Bux Sathio, Senior Vice President of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture in Hyderabad, wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and the recently appointed Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) expressing serious concerns about and opposition to the further increase in the sales tax rate from 10 to 14 percent on these tractors.
The assembly was informed that before to June 30, 2022, the commodities were subject to the Eighth Schedule of Sale Tax Act, 1990, and Pakistani agricultural farmers were required to pay a five percent sales tax.
After that, on July 1, 2022, it was included in the Finance Act 2022’s Sixth Schedule, which permitted the exemption of sales tax at Serial No. 170.
This Sixth Schedule exemption benefited Pakistani domestic producers of farm tractors.
The farmers that buy agricultural tractors from the local tractor manufacturer did not receive the benefits of the aforementioned facility. The senior vice president of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture said that local manufacturers had included the exemption amount in the tractor’s price and taken all of the farmers’ earnings.
The government raised the sales tax rate to 10% effective of July 1, 2024. Nabi Bux Sathio said that the local manufacturers, who had already illegally added the previous 18% tax to the cost of the agricultural tractor, have now increased the price by an additional 10%.
despite the fact that their selling prices already included the Sixth Schedule’s excluded portion.
The local tractor manufacturer is allegedly using their power to raise the sales tax rate by an additional 4 percent, raising it from 10 percent to 14 percent, as the farmers’ group learned.
All of the aforementioned increases in the sales tax on tractors are against SRO.563/2022, which was issued expressly to give farmers the greatest possible benefits.
