All Pakistan Anjuman-i-Tajran Thursday organised a national convention against the imposition of withholding tax and introduction of the tax amnesty scheme. Traders' associations including Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, rejected the tax amnesty scheme introduced by the government, saying it will not serve the purpose for which they have been protesting for the last four-and-a-half months. Traders have adopted a unanimous resolution against the imposition of the withholding tax and appealed to the Prime Minister and the Federal Finance Minister to withdraw the tax or else traders will take to the streets.
The traders also agreed to build a consensus on various traders' organisations on the taxes. Markazi Anjuman-e-Tajaran President Mohammad Kashif Chaudhry chaired the All Pakistan Anjuman-i-Tajran (APAT) and Khalid Pervaiz was the chief guest. Traders' associations from all over Pakistan participated in the convention. Khalid Pervaiz said that the representatives of traders from all over the country will chalk out a fresh strategy to counter the scheme which is aimed at suffocating small traders, having capital less than Rs 25million, and benefiting the big investors.
The participants said that they would hold the second convention in Faisalabad on January 20. They said the scheme, which followed the withholding tax on banking transactions exceeding Rs 50,000 a day, was not for ordinary traders rather it was for the looters to whiten their undeclared profit. They asked the government that how traders who were retailers could have working capital up to Rs 50 m and declare their turnover which they did not have.
"The two conventions will make it clear whether traders are with their true representatives who have rejected the tax or with those people who have supported the official scheme to benefit the black sheep", Pervaiz made it clear. Vice Chairman Anjuman-i-Tajran Rawalpindi said they never demanded the amnesty scheme as it was not the solution for small traders. He said the traders were being pressurised to submit statements to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) or face action.
He said how small traders could submit statements as they had nothing to declare. For a couple of months, he said that traders were in contact with government for the withdrawal of the withholding tax, but they were ditching them. Anjuman-i-Tajran Sindh said that traders were being pressed with different taxes rather than being provided any kind of relief. In Sindh, they are facing external threat and at domestic front they are facing pressure from tax authorities. Traders' leaders criticising the amnesty scheme said it will not serve any purpose. They said the scheme would neither benefit any trader nor would help widen the tax net.
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