Fixed tax: Retailers across country refuse to pay electricity bills

ISLAMABAD: The All Pakistan Anjuman Tajran and Traders Action Committee Islamabad have rejected fixed sales tax in electricity bills, and demanded the withdrawal of the SRO.

Ajmal Baloch, president of the All Pakistan Anjuman Tajran and Traders Action Committee, Islamabad, in a press conference at the National Press Club, along with officials from all markets in the federal capital, demanded removal of Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail and said no electricity bills containing fixed sales tax would be paid, and if Wapda or any power supply company tried to remove the electricity meter, traders would launch a protest movement.

He said in the budget document, the income tax for non-filers was to be applied from Rs3,000 to Rs10,000 per annum, while in the SRO it was made monthly instead of annual, which was a bad thing on the part of the finance minister. He lied on the floor of the assembly for which he should not only be removed from office but banned, they demanded.

Separately, the business community in KP also rejected collection of fixed tax through electricity bills and demanded the federal government to withdraw the plan immediately. Hasnain Khurshid Ahmad, president Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), while chairing a meeting of local traders here Thursday, said the government wanted to collect sales tax from Rs3,000 to Rs20,000 through electricity bills, which was not acceptable to them.

Without differentiating between small and large-scale businesses and godowns, the forced system of fixed sales tax on commercial power meters was reflective of the government’s anti-business policies and tantamount to economic murder of the traders community, added Khurshid. The meeting was attended by the chamber’s senior vice president Imran Khan Mohmand, vice president Javed Akhtar, Anjuman-e-Tajran Peshawar president Haji Muhammad Afzal and other leaders from the trading community, office-bearers of various bazaars and market associations. The traders have already paid sales tax and again collection of fixed tax from Rs3,000 to Rs20,000 through power bills was completely unjustifiable and unfair, the speakers said.

The SCCI’s chief said the frequent increase in power tariff and collection of fuel price adjustment (FPA) in power bills was strongly condemnable and unacceptable. Hasnain Khurshid asked the federal government to refrain from imposing anti-trader and anti-business policies. He added that traders were poor and could not afford any new tax, subsequent to high inflation.