Call to cut tax on utility bills

Lahore:An array of banners was displayed at the Liberty Roundabout on Sunday, mostly of them demanding people’s rights or shedding light on the country’s economy.

This was the work of The Concerned Citizens Society that met here on Sunday. The society that came into being in 1999 has held 80 consultations by now and this time they had called upon the people to come together to find a way to counter price-hike. Income is not growing at the rate at which expenses are increasing, it say.

Its demands are education, vocational training and health for citizens. Their another plea is to keep the family size small and educate girls in particular. The society pointed out that Pakistan has $27 billion in foreign exchange reserves while India has $620 billion in foreign exchange reserves.

It said, “Pakistan requires urgent debt retirement to reduce unfair taxation on utility bills forced by the IMF and World Bank in a very poor country.” Its demanded that government expenditure be rationalised to achieve self-sufficiency in food and infuse massive funds into infrastructure development of Pakistan without relying on CPEC alone.

The society was started by Dr Suhail Muzaffar, a doctor, He particularly said Pakistan should do less imports and it needed to reduce taxes. “Stop importing cars that are more than 1600 cc,” is another demand of the society. The patrons of this society are Mahboob Shahid Khan and Shaheena Asif.