MULTAN - The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) warned on Wednesday that imposition of four percent withholding tax on the entire textile value chain would completely destroy the whole industry. Addressing a press conference here, PCGA’s vice chairman Mehr Muhammad Ashraf Mahar, former chairmen Haji Muhammad Akram, Shehzad Ali Khan, ex-vice chairman Aasim Saeed Sheikh said that the FBR was bent upon killing the hen that laid golden eggs. They pointed out that the FBR repeatedly stated that tax on domestic commerce was 1 percent instead of 4 percent as there was no change in the income tax laws, rules and regulations but now a ‘clarification’ by FBR was issued stating that the withholding tax on the entire textile value chain would be 4 percent. They said that ‘’This measure is example of extreme shortsightedness as 4 percent of the gross value of each invoice as advance income tax cannot be recovered and will necessarily become part of the cost.’’ Quoting an example while looking at the cotton purchase from the ginners, a 4 percent deduction from the ginners invoices will lead to pressure on ginners to reduce the price they pay for cotton procured from the farmer as their own tax liability in reality is only for ginning charges which constitutes 35 percent of the ginned cotton.