PCGA demands payment of refunds, 24-hour electricity,& soft loans for ginners

MULTAN,Oct 5th:  Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA)'s office bearers have urged upon the Federal board of revenue (FBR) to clear their tax-refund cases which are lying pending for the last five years so that ginners could modernise their units. Addressing a Press Conference Chairman of of PCGA Haji Muhammad Akram alongwith  Vice Chairman Mian Javed Tariq, Ex-Chairmen, Shehzad Ali Khan, Sheikh Muhammad Saeed, Khawaja Muhammad Azam, Khalid Bashir ,Sheikh Muhammad Ashfaq, Sheikh Aasim Saeed Ex-Vice Chairman  and Khawaja Ashfaq Hussain have protested against the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) freezing of their bank account, misuse of discretionary powers under section 38-B and raids at business premises.They described them as anti-business tactics of the tax machinery and demanded the FBR to stop misusing Section 38-B of Sales Tax Act, 1990 that was crushing the business community.They said that attaching bank accounts for recovery of outstanding dues is hampering business growth and tarnishing the business-friendly image of the government. They further stated that bank accounts should not be attached without prior notice to the taxpayer and after seeking approval in writing of the commissioner, in the light of the reply submitted by the taxpayer. They said that power distribution companies (Discos) are binding to provide electricity round the clock because these were charging fixed charges of 24 hours from ginning factories and these were not ready to compensate the ginners in case of loadshedding of 6 to 8 hours or shut down. They said that load-shedding had broken the back of ginners  in south Punjab. They reiterated their demand to exempt the cotton ginning sector of power load shedding otherwise its survival was not possible.They also urged upon the bankers to advance loans to ginners on soft terms and condition and they must cut their mark-up plus spread because Government had policy lowered to 5.75 percent. They decided to launch an awareness programme about contaminated cotton for the ginners.Generally, about the quality of cotton which is determined by its colour, fibre length, strength, fitness and the degree to which the cotton is from contamination. Thus among others, one of the important factors which makes the quality of raw cotton low, is contamination. A contamination may be an impurity, which can affect the subsequent processes, product appearance or product quality in general. Contamination causes to produce low quality lint cotton, yarn and manufactured goods. Haji Muhammad Akram Chairman of PCGA said that Punjab dominates in the production of cotton by producing 80 per cent of the country’s cotton. In the past, pricing and marketing of cotton was based on variety and weight. Payment by weight together with a lack of premium to pickers resulted in a very trashy and single grade contaminated cotton of low quality, which fetched low price. The cotton support price issued by the government should also be based on variety without mentioning any premium for the contamination-free quality cotton.He suggested that Ginners should not dump their cotton in ginneries and they should try their the best to dispose of their stock at the earliest to save themselves from financial losses. He demanded of Provincial Secretary Agriculture Muhammad Mehmood Ahmed to take measures to check the adulteration of " "Saangli" and discourage the polluted cotton.Felicitating the Federal Minister for energy Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari,they expressed hope that he would redress their grievances regarding the power outage and he would take measures for uninterrupted supply of electricity to ginning sector.