The committee met in the chair of Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh. The meeting started with a brief description of budgetary measures to support the agriculture sector, and it was noted that each province should establish its own agriculture banks to finance its farmers in their respective areas. Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh said that it is a technical committee and the members have tried to maintain the standard of discussions above the party lines, adding, "We need to highlight the flaws and shortcomings for the larger benefit of system and the country."
The chairman of the committee asked Sardar Sikander Bosan, Minister for Food Security to express the concerns of the farmers and those affiliated with rural economy. The minister was the special invitee in the committee. Bosan said that FBR has been unfair with the agriculture sector by not rationally executing the directives of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.
"Similarly the banking sector too has been unfair with us, the loans being disbursed to agriculture sector has the highest rate of mark-up, and vast majority of loans are being disbursed to traders and middlemen instead of farmers," Sardar Sikander Bosan said. Responding to his complaint, Secretary Finance Tariq Bajwa said that cost of processing loans for the farmers is significantly high, while risk factors are high too.
Discussing the subject, the committee members agreed that the provinces need to establish their own agriculture banks and provide subsidies to the farmers from their own budget. The other main issue highlighted by the minister for food securities was, what he called, irrational subsidies on fertilizers.
"The subsidies have been provided irrationally by the FBR which are contrary to the announcements made by finance minister in budget speech," he said and informed the committee that urea is based on 'nitrogen' but the prices of other supplements based on nitrogen have not been decreased.
"Such a situation creates an awkward situation for us, as people ask why the other fertilizers were being sold at same price," the minister said. The minister added that similarly the price of DAP fertilizer has been rationalised in the new budget but nothing has been done for other 'phosphate' based fertilizers.
The committee was informed that a meeting will be held with officials of the Ministry of Food Security, FBR and the representatives of fertilizer companies in the Finance Ministry to streamline the matter. "We are meeting them on Saturday and prices of all fertilizers will be reduced accordingly," the secretary finance said. Interestingly, Pervaiz Malik of PML-N flayed the federal budget 2017-18 and said opposed to the expectations there was nothing for revival of industries in the budget. He made a reference of the tractors being manufactured in the country. The committee members noted that the tractors being manufactured it Pakistan are based on six decades old technology and it was decided that feedback may be sought from the Engineering Development Board over the matter.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017