Industry demands cut in excise duty on dairy products

Animal Husbandry Secretary Devendra Chaudhary today said taxation on dairy products could be rationalised via value-added activities of the milk produced as the industry pitches for excise duty cuts.

The industry also demanded that the dairy sector should be kept outside the ambit of goods and services tax (GST) bill, which is not yet passed in Parliament.

“The taxation on dairy products could be rationalized through value-added activities of the milk produced,” Chaudhary while addressing a seminar organized by industry body PHD Chamber of Commerce.

The secretary, however, did not comment on the industry’s demand to keep the dairy products to outside the GST ambit, said the statement issued by the industry body. Reliance Dairy Foods CEO Anup Kalra, Agrinnovate India CEO Harsev Singh, Ayurvet Managing Director Priyanka Mittal, were among other private players present in the seminar on Doubling Farmers Income Through Dairy Sector.

In the seminar, the industry players gave a unified call for reducing the excise duty structure for dairy products from present level of 5-6 per cent.

“The seminar recommended to the government that indigenous dairy sector be a part and parcel of the agri activities, its excise levy be rationalized and the sector should be kept outside purview of GST,” the statement said.

It was also feared that with the enactment of GST bill, the dairy sector may be subjected to about 18 per cent of GST which would make it economically unviable at a time when talks for doubling the farmers income through dairy also are advancing, it added. PTI LUX ABK

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