By Our Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: A Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research Chairman Senator Syed Masroor Ahsan has said on Monday that consensus had been reached that;
1: to provide schedule of paying back arrears of Imported Cotton on which reconciliation is also reached.Amount is nearly 1 billion.
2: to reconcile locally use cotton bales figure in a fixed time frame and provide a plan for paying arrears which are around 2billion.
Moreover, a legal action would be taken against those who would not pay outstanding dues of imported cotton. APTMA, Secretary General assured and agreed to give in writing that in this case, outstanding dues should be given and, if not, then Government should cancel their
Import licenses and take necessary steps.
He said this while presiding over a meeting of Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research at Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation here.
He said matter regarding using of cotton bales at local level in specific period and for
payment of outstanding dues would be worked out.
On this issue APTMA representatives reiterated that till hold of 18 per cent sales tax we can’t do anything on which Minister and Secretary MoNFS&R said that this will be done by Government and will write to DC of concerned areas to recover as arrears of Land Revenue.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research Rana Tanveer Hussain who was also present in the meeting said the government was well aware of the challenges facing the industry and taking serious steps to improve governance, eliminate corruption so that
smooth functioning of departments could be ensured.
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He said the government was focusing to boost cotton yield in the country, adding that seed regulatory body had been formed and also on issue of 18% GST he said he was unaware of that and APTMA to write to Minsitry about this issue so then he will move summary in consultation with Finance Division for resolving this issue.
The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) representatives were also present in the meeting.
It may be mentioned that the chairman had asked the APTMA representatives to give in writing that the government could take legal action against those who fail to make payments of outstanding dues of imported cotton to which APTMA representatives agreed.
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