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The province is making some changes to provincial sales tax (PST) to lend a hand to farmers.
In a release, the province shared that amendments to PST regulations will “provide greater clarity to farmers” and help ensure the tax is “applied fairly and consistently to farming and agricultural goods and services.”
Deputy premier and finance minister Donna Harpauer said the changes were made after hearing concerns about how fairly PST was being applied to farming and agriculture activity.
“The changes to the PST regulations will be more equitable, consistent and protect farmers against perceived ‘PST creep’ in farming activity,” Harpauer said in the release.
The changes took effect on April 1.
Exemptions include prefabricated wind breaker panels for use in the protection and handling of livestock, insulators for electrified livestock fences, certain farm equipment attached to a registered vehicle and on-farm dugout excavation.
Other product exemptions were made on items retroactively back to April 1, 2016. They included water storage tanks used to spray or irrigate crops, storage tanks used for various chemicals or liquid fertilizer, adjuvants that improve their efficacy or application, portable seed cleaners used on-farm to prepare crops for storage or market and farm tractors.
Arnold Balicki, chair of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, said rising inflation and operating costs in recent years have posed a growing problem cattle producers and all farmers.
“The recognition of this by the Government of Saskatchewan when it comes to PST on several important farm-related goods and activities is appreciated by Saskatchewan’s cattle producers,” Balicki said.
He said removing the tax from the industry helps level the playing field and makes the Saskatchewan agriculture industry “more competitive in the long run.”
The yearly cost of the changes are estimated to be around $1 million.
Future budgets could also include modernizing the agriculture and farming section of PST legislation, something the ministry of finance has said they are beginning to discuss.