ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Friday proposed several relief measures for developing agriculture sector in the country and announced uniform general sales tax on all fertilisers.
It has announced uniform general sales tax (GST) at the rate of 3 per cent on all fertilisers, which would eliminate distortion in tax regime, further reduce fertiliser prices and promote use of balanced nutrient.
The government also proposed a reduction in GST on agriculture machinery from current 7 per cent to 5 per cent, whereas concessions in taxes and duties were being proposed for dairy livestock sectors.
In Budget 2018-19, the government has proposed setting up an agriculture research support fund with an initial allocation of Rs5 billion, which would provide financial grants for research and development of modern plant and seed varieties for achieving higher crop yield.
Besides, the government also proposed establishing an agriculture technology fund for indigenisation of agriculture technology with an initial allocation of Rs5 billion.
The government has also decided to revamp all the research organisations and was working on a restructuring plan to transform these organisations and institutions into state-of-the-art platforms for research and development.