Pak Bakers Demand Exemption From RGST

pic courtesy -dawnbread.com

Bread manufacturers have appealed to the government to keep bread exempted from reformed general sales tax (RGST) as it is an essential food item exempted from consumption tax all over the world.

They warned that 125 documented, automated bread manufacturing plants in the country employing around 30,000 workers would close down if RGST was imposed on bread, the daily breakfast food in most of the urban households.

“It will put at risk about Rs10 billion investments of small and medium entrepreneurs,” said Haroon Chaudhry, the chief executive of Bunny’s Limited.

“RGST is a nightmare for those documented sectors where non-documented competitors are equally strong as in the case of bread where the end product looks the same and doesn’t reveal the unhygienic processes adopted by small roadside bakeries.”

He said that under the current inflationary situation people went for the cheaper product without caring about how it was prepared.

He said an automatic bread plant was established at a cost of Rs150 million to Rs1 billion depending on its size. “The breads manufactured by these plants comply with the best global health and hygiene standards, which cannot be guaranteed by the non-documented bread-makers who would capture the entire bread market if RGST was imposed on the documented manufacturers.”
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Bread-makers demand exemption from RGST