Business community has announced to avoid paying professional tax unless government compensates the traders who were affected due to the construction of bus rapid transit (BRT) and heritage trail in Peshawar.
This was announced by representatives of various associations of traders during a meeting and also apprised an opposition MPA Samar Bilour here. The MPA on the request of the traders visited parts of the heritage trail and BRT where the construction work has badly affected business activities but the government has so far not compensated the traders.
According to a statement Markazee-e-Tanzeem-e-Tajiran Peshawar president Haji Malik Mehr Ilahi while representing the business community briefed the lawmaker about the problems created due to the BRT and Heritage Trail and said that government instead of accepting their demands was teasing them to pay various taxes.
He pointed out that the officials of excise and taxation department were frequently teasing the traders, saying that such taxes could be imposed on the businesspersons who were providing different services to the people.
Malik Mehr Ilahi said that lawyers, hairdressers, doctors and other professionals could be taxed and traders should be exempted from it as they were already paying many taxes of different kinds and unable to afford any other tax. "We will either not pay the taxes or stop the trade activities," he said.
Other traders' leaders including Haji Shakeel Ahmed Khan, Saleem Khan, Shaikh Raziq, Gul Rehman, Qari Waqar Ali, Nasir Khan, Haji Zahoor Ilahi, Samiullah, Rehmat Khan, Haji Arshad, Asif Khan Durrani, Haji Ghulam Haider Ali, Zafar Khan also shared views and said that the construction work had badly affected the traffic system and made lives of the citizens miserable.
"We have time and again presented out demands to the government through the district administration but our problems have never been considered seriously which further created unrest among the business community," he lamented.
The delay in construction of the BRT and Heritage Trail, he said had caused huge financial losses to the business community and thus many of the traders had either shut their workplaces or shifted to other cities in compulsion as the government did not compensate them despite requests.
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