"We are not ready to serve as Patwari, tax agent, record keeper of the others, "Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) vowed to continue their strike and stopping the purchase of raw cotton (Phutti) from the growers till the withdrawal of SRO of 3.5 percent withholding tax and said that ginners are not ready to serve as withholding tax collecting agents.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday Vice Chairman of PCGA Shehzad Ali Khan and former Chairman Shaikh Muhammad Saeed said that FBR has issued an ambiguous SRO which authorises the ginners to collect the 3.5 percent withholding tax from the Arhtis/Beoparis/ Middlemen when they supply the cotton to the ginners, scrutinise the ownership papers of the growers, certificate and other land holding documents issued by Patwaris and deposit tax of at least Rs 87 billion in national coffers.
They said that ginners have no sufficient staff to scrutinise the official documents and they have no expertise to judge the fake and genuine documents. They said, "we are not ready to undergo imprisonment for the crime what we did not commit," Shehzad Ali Khan said that we are traders, we are not tax manager/collectors nor FBR can compel us to serve as Patwari as well as tax collector. He said that ginners are already paying one percent turn over tax on the sale of cotton even without earning any profit in the light of an agreement between the PCGA and FBR.
They demanded for withdrawal of notices served on ginners of Sindh for depositing the 3.5 percent withholding tax. They said that FBR has opened a pandora box for the farmers as well as ginners which would breed corruption and revenue department would fleece the cotton growers for issuance of their cotton produce certificate. They may also issue fake certificates to the middlemen to save their tax.
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