The business community of Rawalpindi unanimously rejected the SRO 608 of Federal Board of Revenue and demanded of the government to withdraw the said SRO within a week otherwise business community will go on shutter down strike which will be continued till acceptance of all demands.
This was decided in a meeting organized by the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) presided over by the President RCCI Syed Asad Mashadi here on Tuesday. Former presidents of RCCI Shaikh Shabbir, Sohail Altaf, Najam Rehan, Dr Hassan Sarosh Akram and leaders of all trade associations of Rawalpindi City and Cantt including Shaikh Saddique, Shaikh Hafeez, Chaudhery Iqbal, Haroon Shah, Tahir Taj Bhatti, Khan Afsar, Zafar Qadri, Abdul Majeed Amjid, Navid Kanwal, Fayyaz Qureshi and Abdul Qadoos attended the meeting.
Syed Asad Mashadi while announcing the joint resolution said that government must withdraw sales tax withholding agents, SRO 608 and simplify the tax returns form at the earliest. In his speech, Asad Mashadi in consultation with trade associations gave government one week deadline for acceptance of all demands, in other case all the business community will go on shutter down strike. Mashadi said that Rawalpindi Chamber is taking other chambers into confidence to observe countrywide shutter down.
President RCCI said that during the last one-and-half-year of this government business community tried to avert any clash between the government and business community, but unjustified steps of the government is putting business community on crossroads and with the consultation of all stakeholders Rawalpindi Chamber has to announce this decision for the betterment of the business community. He said that business community is willing to pay their due taxes but government is focusing on existing taxpayers to meet its target which is an unfair act.
Business community on many forums has raised the voice in favour of broadening of tax base but government never paid attention, he added. Tax reforms, reduction and unification of Sales Tax ratio for everyone, law and order, encroachment, excise and traffic issues were also discussed in the meeting. It is worth to be mentioned that trade associations gave president RCCI full mandate to take any step to resolve the problems of businessmen of the region.-PR