ISLAMABAD: The All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran (APAT) would lodge a protest on Tuesday (today) outside Prime Minister Secretariat against taxation measures envisaged under the Tax Laws (Third) Amendment Ordinance, 2021.
Talking to Business Recorder over mobile phone, APAT Chairman Ajmal Baloch said they have conveyed to the government that traders would neither accept forced sale tax registration, nor they can afford point of sale and would strongly resist against the power of police being given to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) through Presidential Ordinance. This would open more doors of corruption in the FBR.
He said that the government was accepting every demand, adding that this was being done under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demand. He claimed that traders from across the country would reach the federal capital to stage a protest outside the Prime Minister Secretariat as a first step and if their demands were not met, then they would consider going for a shutter down strike.
He stated that the first protest was made on September 29, 2021 outside the FBR Headquarters. Later, traders staged the second sit-in at Faizabad on October 26 to sensitise the government about their demands and now they are going to stage a protest outside the PM Secretariat.
Traders are demanding an end to presidential ordinance that they have termed as a “black law”, end to sales tax registration and POS integration, and promulgation of a new ordinance to end corruption within the tax machinery. He said that the POS should be installed at chain and brand stores.
The traders will arrive in large numbers from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, various parts of Punjab, and from as far as the commercial hub of the country, Karachi, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Kashmir, he added.
The protest is against the harsh tax policies and complicated and double documentation, which would increase tax evasion and corruption in the country, Baloch added. Additionally, with the promulgation of the Tax Laws (Third Amendments) Ordinance 2021 for broadening of the tax base on September 17, the government has granted sweeping powers to the FBR for disconnection of mobile phones SIMs, electricity, and gas connection of non-filers.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021