Govt withdraws sales tax on import of onions, tomatoes

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has withdrawn sales taxon the import of onions and tomatoes to help reduce prices of these twovegetables after floods destroyed crops on thousands of acres.
The Federal Board of Revenue on Thursday issued a Statutory RegulatoryOrder (SRO) to withdraw sales tax on the import of onions (PCT heading0703.1000) and tomatoes (PCT heading 0702.0000).
PCT stands for PakistanCustoms Tariff codes.
The exemption has been granted until December 31, 2022.Onions and tomatoes are vital ingredients for most of the dishes inPakistani cuisine.
Their prices soared after the floods and tomatoes nowcost as much as Rs500 per kilogram in major urban centers – aroundsixfold higher than the prices before the floods.
The price of onion has also shot up to Rs300 per kilogram.
The All Pakistan Fruit & Vegetable Exporters, Importers & MerchantsAssociation (PFVA) had recently urged the government to remove taxes andduties on the two vegetables.
The government recently announced that it will facilitate the import ofonions and tomatoes, especially from Iran and Afghanistan.However, the ban on imports from India remains in place.Waheed Ahmed, the patron in chief of PFVA told a private televisionchannel that the government has granted 13,000 permits for the import ofonions and tomatoes and will issue more letters in the next few days.
He said Pakistan was importing onions and tomatoes from Iran while theimport of onions from UAE, Egypt and Turkiye was also in process.
Floods have contributed to rising food inflation in Pakistan which hasrisen to 29.5% on a year-on-year basis, according to the latest datashared by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. -NNI