Dairy Tax Rip-Off, PDA Slams Govt as Milk Prices Crush Consumers

The Pakistan Dairy Association (PDA) stormed into battle Wednesday, slamming the government to gut the crippling 18% General Sales Tax (GST) on packaged milk. They’re screaming bloody murder—this tax is a chokehold driving up milk prices, strangling producers, and bleeding consumers dry. The showdown went down with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Industries and Production Haroon Akhtar Khan, where the dairy sector’s brutal woes got dragged into the spotlight.

Haroon Akhtar tossed out a flex: Pakistan pumps out over 70 million tons of milk yearly, ranking it among the world’s dairy heavyweights. But he admitted the industry’s rotting—better farming and processing muscle are non-negotiable to crank up quality and slash costs.

PDA reps didn’t hold back, roaring that the 18% GST is a price-hiking monster choking investment and shoving consumers into the grubby arms of the unregulated milk underworld—cheap, sketchy, and a health hazard waiting to explode. They demanded the government torch this tax insanity, slashing it to keep milk flowing cheap and turbocharge the industry. High taxes aren’t just a wallet hit—they’re fueling a dangerous shift to dodgy milk peddlers.

Haroon Akhtar played peacemaker, swearing the government’s got the dairy sector’s back and will keep jawing with stakeholders to carve out a fix. He owned the tax mess, admitting it’s screwing the industry, and preached the need for a savage policy overhaul to juggle revenue with growth and affordability.

The convo veered into a war cry for cash—modern dairy tech and hardcore infrastructure upgrades are the only way to juice production and processing. Haroon Akhtar doubled down: no food self-sufficiency without a jacked-up dairy game.

In a separate ring, Haroon Akhtar squared off with the Pakistan Business Council (PBC) alongside Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, tearing into export woes, import snags, and tariff nightmares. Businesses are drowning in sky-high production costs, and they’re mad as hell. Haroon Akhtar swore Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s crew is all-in to juice exports and fix the business scene, vowing policy steel to fuel growth. Jam Kamal piled on, hammering home that trade and industry need a global power-up, with relentless talks to lock in economic stability.