Additional WHT on edibles: KWGA says will observe strike today

KARACHI: Karachi Wholesale Grocers Association (KWGA) has announced to hold a shutter-down strike Friday (today) against the 2.5 percent additional withholding tax on essential kitchen items.

Chairman of the KWGA, Abdul Rauf Ibrahim, informed Business Recorder that the supply and sale of basic edible items such as rice, wheat, pulses, ghee, and cooking oil will be halted today, August 31, due to the strike. Retailers are also observing the strike.

The strike, he said, is initially being observed in Karachi and Hyderabad against the government’s arbitrary taxing of essential commodities by an additional 2.5 percent withholding tax. “We (traders) are already paying 3.5 percent,” he added.

The increased withholding tax will make the essential kitchen items costlier by up to 25 percent, opening floodgates of food inflation in the country, he said, adding that the move will make life miserable for the poor. =”Strikes do not help businesses but we are left with no other options,” he said.

“Traders are perplexed to read the county’s economic situation and the government’s policies,” he said adding that taxing the basic edible items will cost double to the consumers. Labourers with minimum wage cannot meet expenses for kids’ schools fees, electricity bills, medicines; etc., he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024