LAHORE: The Pakistan Business Forum on Sunday lauded the initiatives announced in the federal budget for the promotion of IT and agriculture sectors.
Sharing the Forum’s comments on the budget with the media, PBF Secretary Information and Spokesperson Zainab Jatoi said the national economy was already under pressure due to recent floods and the Russia-Ukraine war. However, she said, the government had taken a lot of steps in the budget, which would help the Information Technology, agriculture, and SME sectors grow.
She said that in this financial plan, the farming sector had been earmarked 5 billion rupees for the arrangement of sponsored advances to the agriculture business, while 6 billion rupees were reserved for the discount on imported urea, adding that obligations and charges on import of value seeds had been annulled. The PBF appreciated these efforts.
The rural economy has the full potential to be transformed by the agro-industry. The SMEs are very important to any industry. In this budget, the government has carried out a super duty on pay above 150 million rupees. This decision is in direct contravention of the promise.
Initiative for Solar Tube Wells in Budget
Jatoi said that the conversion of 50,000 tube wells to solar energy would not only reduce the production cost for the farmers but also help decrease the demand for electricity and imported diesel. She said that exemption from taxes and duties on combined harvesters, seeders and dryers, rice planters, and import of saplings and certified seeds, as well as five-year tax exemption to agriculture-based industries in villages, would help increase production and decrease the post-harvest losses.
She also expected relief in fertilizer rates, particularly in DAP and Potash.
