Lahore Retailers and General Merchants Association (LRGMA) and Muslim Tajar Ittehad Lahore have urged the government to reduce all unnecessary and non-development expenditures before levying Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) or Flood Tax. This demand was made at a joint meeting of both the organisations, held here Saturday, with LRGMA President Rao Muhammad Akram Khan in the chair.
The meeting was participated by a large number of traders who said that the traders' community is ready to fully co-operate with the government in tax collection, but it too should assure them that this tax would be spent judiciously. They said that before levying any new tax, government should reduce expenses of the President, Prime Minister, chief ministers and ministers by 50 percent while the senators and other legislators announce they would not receive any salary. The representatives have been elected to serve the masses then why they charge for it, they questioned.
The traders suggested that expenditures of other government departments should also be reduced reasonably while agricultural tax enforced immediately. Tax net should be broadened, tax evasion stopped and tax evaders should be taken to task, they added. They said if these demands are accepted, only then they would co-operate with the government for imposing flood tax and RGST. Otherwise, they warned, traders would use the 'shutter power' to protest against enforcement of RGST.