KARACHI: A group of petroleum dealers have announced they will not join the July 05 strike. These petroleum retailers have said that they will take the path of detailed negotiations with the authorities before opting for extreme options like an indefinite strike.

After giving the strike call, negotiations are useless, so petrol pumps will be kept open all over the country on July 05, as the country’s economy cannot be jammed at this critical juncture, they added.

“We have protested in the past as well. We have also closed D-Chowk and blocked Faizabad Interchange. We have also protested outside the National Assembly and Senate,” Hasan Shah, Spokesperson of Petroleum Dealers, while talking to petroleum dealers, said. However, he underlined that negotiations are still the best option while strikes should be the last option.

He said that a delegation led by Petroleum Dealers Rawalpindi leader Numan Ali Butt met Minister of State for Finance Ali Pervez Malik and informed him that petroleum dealers may be charged either fixed tax or regular tax. A business cannot be taxed both ways, and if it were to do so, it would be illegal, and the petrol pumps would be shut down.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024