Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has taken notice of the stuck-up consignments of imported soybean used in poultry feed by the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation (l&l) Customs, Karachi, and Department of Plant Protection (DPP) at Port Qasim.
Sources told ProPakistani that the FTO has issued notices to all relevant stakeholders including the Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) Chairman Muhammad Ashraf with the hearing of the complaint fixed for Thursday (tomorrow).
According to the FTO, the complaint was filed by the PPA and a preliminary hearing of the said complaint was held on November 30. An official of the PPA told the FTO during the hearing that the Directorate of l&l Customs, Karachi, and the Department of Plant Protection are not issuing the required NOCs for clearance of their legally imported 9 consignments of soybean, stuck at Port Qasim, Karachi, which is tantamount to maladministration and needs the intervention of the FTO.
The PPA informed the FTO about the current situation of the ability of the poultry feed mills to continue their production because of the non-availability of soybean and soybean meal which is an essential feed ingredient.
The FTO was informed that the price of the presently available limited stock of soybean meal is skyrocketing, and the feed mills will run out of soybean meal stock within a week.
This will result in the manufacturing of feed without soybean meal and that feed will not support the growth of broilers (chicken) and the production of eggs in layer birds resulting in a shortage of broiler meat and eggs in the country.
PPA said that poultry farms providing chicken, eggs, and inputs for other poultry products would resultantly have to close their farms because of the non-availability of feed. It further said that there will be no buyer of day-old chicks because of the non-availability of feed which will lead to the culling of breeder flocks and the shutting down of hatcheries.
