ISLAMABAD: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) on Saturday criticised the federal budget 2017-18 for not providing incentives to promote the agriculture sector.

It blamed the policies of the government for regular protests by f armers and agriculturists.

`All agriculture input should be exempted from sales tax,` said Ahmad Jawad, the regional chairman of the FPCCI committee on horticulture exports. `It is a sheer injustice that farmers have to pay huge amount on basic function of farming.

He said the government should have announced a support price for cotton as the farmers found no incentive for sowing to huge losses in the recent years.

Mr Jawad said no special announcement was made in the budget to cover the importexport gap, adding the situation showed that exports would remain the same next year.

He also noted that the proposal to increase the withholding tax rate on nonfilers was an incorrect move as it would affect traders. The benefits of the move cannot be achieved until and unless proper tax reforms are executed.

The FPCCI standing committee chief said once again no incentives were announced for the horticulture exports in the budget.

`Globally, Pakistan`s horticulture export share is 0.3pc only. We expected the government would give incentives to establish value addition infrastructure in order to increase the exports of fresh fruits and vegetables sector under the public-private partnership.` But he regretted that no funds were earmarked to promote nontraditional products such as horticulture.

`The government should understand that the horticulture sector has the potential to make a maximum contribution in the export sector if some support is provided,` he added.

However, he welcomed the incentives given in the prices of urea and DAP fertilizer, adding the zero rated import duty on used agricultural machinery was a good step towards mechanised f arming.