More than 600 marble factories in Mohmand Agency and its adjacent defective area have been closed, rendering more than 5,000 workers jobless as strike against 100 percent increase in tax on minerals has entered fifth day on Wednesday.
The marble factories, mining association, and truck union of the Agency have been observing strike against the increase of tax on minerals, terming it illegal and unjust.
The marble factories in Shah Kas Industrial Estates, Mulagori Marble Industry, Subhan Khwar Marble Industry and marble factories of 25 villages in the Agency were closed down.
Malik Ijaz Khan, an owner of a marble factory in Shah Kas, told PPI that the Fata secretariat had increased tax on raw marble stone from Rs 600 to Rs 1,200 per truck which would crippled the marble industry not only in the Agency but the whole country.
"Marble stone from Mohmand Agency was being supplied to factories in the Agency, NWFP and the rest of the country, and if the tax was increased it will increase production cost, and will negatively affect marble sector", he said.
Khan said besides the mineral tax, they also pay Rs 500 per truck to the political administration. He informed that previously the officials of the Fata secretariat directly collected the tax, but later huge financial embezzlement was reported and then the tax collection was given to a contractor.
He said they had been staging a strike camp at Saro Kali since Friday to press the government for their demands.
He said thousands of local people were employed in marble, mining, and factories in the Agency, adding: "If the government cannot extend any support to us at least it should refrain from creating hurdles in the smooth running of the factories."
He said if the government did not withdraw its decision then they would stage a sit-in in front of the NWFP Governor House and would launch a protest movement.
Khan said NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah was taking steps for promotion of industry in the Federally-Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata), but such action on the part of bureaucracy would render his efforts fruitless.
"We appeal to the NWFP governor to personally intervene in the matter and withdraw the increase in tax on minerals for the betterment of the industrial sector in Fata", he said, adding if the situation continued it would discourage foreign and local investors to invest in the marble sector, which had a big scope of fetching foreign reserves to the country.