Traders convention: After 10 years in exile, the man who gave shopkeepers a voice, returns

Small traders to launch 'Ghareeb ka Choola Jalney do' movement.

SUKKUR: After 10 long years in exile, the man who gave small traders a voice, Muhammad Umer Silia, has returned to Pakistan to launch a ‘Ghareeb ka Choola Jalney do’ movement [Let the poor man’s hearth stay lit].

Twelve years ago, Silia formed the All Pakistan Small Traders and Cottage Industries (APSTCI) at a time when no one was interested in their contribution to the economy. One can gauge its success by the fact that when the Musharraf government tried to impose the sales tax, the markets in Sukkur stayed closed for 29 days in protest on the APSTCI’s call.

On Monday, Silia held his first convention. During his address, he opposed the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) and advised the government to cut down on luxurious expenses.

He pointed out that there are 94 ministries in the federal cabinet and every minister is using at least five vehicles with additional expenses of protocol and security.

Silia warned that if the government forced RGST through, then the entire country would protest. “The traders do not need political parties as much as the parties need businessmen in order to make their strike calls a success,” he stressed.

The small traders had entered an agreement with the Nawaz Sharif government in 1998, when it was decided that small traders would not pay sales tax and instead would pay development tax at the rate of Rs0.75 on every Rs100, he recalled. It was decided in principle that the amount collected would be spent on education and health but the agreement failed to materialise due to the army coup.

Small traders opposed the sales tax that former president Pervez Musharraf tried to impose and that is why “the dictator forced me out of the country”, said Silia. The present government has also disappointed the people, especially small traders, because it wants them to collect RGST from the people and hand it to the government.

Silia made it clear that small traders are not ready to play the role of middlemen and will never pay RGST, which, he believed, is being imposed under the dictation of the International Monetary Fund. He supported the imposition of taxes on feudal lords and landlords, saying that the trade community pays taxes regularly.

Silia, a member of Karachi’s business community, was in the hotel business but is now in real estate.

Silia said that he was ordered by a member of the secret agencies to leave the country. He left because his life was in danger and went with his family to the US. He did not immediately return upon Musharraf’s exit as he was being treated for lung cancer.

Among his persistent demands, Silia wants the government to allocate quota for small traders in the special seats of parliament. The official announcement for the movement will be made at the All Pakistan Traders Convention, which will be held in Lahore next month, he said. Silia will go to Jacobabad and other cities in the district next.

The all Pakistan convention will be held in Lahore at the end of the month which is where he will reveal new strategies for load shedding, tariff hikes, extortion, target killing etc.

He felt that the government was overburdening the tax payer instead of increasing the size of the tax net.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2011.