Sarafa community warn of agitation if tax not waived off

MANSEHRA: Sarafa community has decided to launch an agitation against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Excise and Taxation Department if it doesn’t waive Rs52000 levy imposed on each shop in the district.

“We have already been paying income tax and other taxes to the government regularly and would never pay this huge tax imposed on each jewellery shop in our district and rest of the province,” Mazhar Bashir, the president of Sarafa Association, told a press conference in Shinkiari on Friday.

He said the Excise and Taxation Department had served jewellers with notices to pay tax amount of Rs52,000 within a week, otherwise a crackdown would be initiated against them.

The president of Sarafa Association said that since Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government came into power, more and more taxes were being levied on the business community.

He said that if the Excise and Taxation Department didn’t waive off the tax, they would first block Karakoram Highway and then launch an agitation against it.