Clearing agents to stop work in protest against 0.9% tax

Association leader says port revenues have dropped due to this tax.

FAISALABAD: Workers at Punjab dry ports as well as clearing agents have decided to go on a token strike to protest against the 0.9% infrastructure cess imposed by the provincial government.

Chairing a meeting of the All Pakistan Dry Ports Association (APDPA), Mukhtar Ahmad Sheikh, Chairman of the Faisalabad Dry Port Trust, said the infrastructure cess was a burden on the industrialists that intended to get their cargo cleared from the upcountry dry ports.

“The Sindh government is collecting this cess at the rate of 1.05%,” he said.

He called the cess a kind of octroi tax that was previously merged in the national budget.

It is levied in addition to the taxes already received in the shape of toll tax, octroi tax and Sindh government tax.

The members of APDPA expressed deep concern that the tax was also being collected from the cargo transported to upcountry through train, which should be exempted because no infrastructure had been used in this context.

“Due to the levy of this tax, revenue collection as on May 26, 2016 at the Lahore dry port decreased 70%,” said the APDPA chairman.

The situation was similar at other dry ports and if
it continued revenue collection at upcountry dry
ports would become zero, bringing the activities to a grinding halt, Sheikh added.

He called on the Punjab government to withdraw the tax immediately.

“Our current half-day strike is for two days and if the Punjab government does not pay attention to our demands, then we will close all the upcountry dry ports for an indefinite period,” he added.

Sheikh stressed that the withdrawal of infrastructure tax was in the greater interest of the Punjab government because if cargo was cleared at upcountry dry ports then customs duty, sales tax, excise duty and other taxes would be collected in Punjab otherwise it would be deprived of this revenue.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2016.

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