Mine wars: Truckers, mine owners decry imposition of taxes

Tehsil Municipal Administration has asked its staff to collect levies from June 1

MANSEHRA: Truck owners took to the streets of Mansehra on Thursday over the imposition of taxes on the transportation of minerals by the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA).

This was said by Frontier Mine Owners Association President Sherbandi Khan Marwat while speaking to the media.

The Oghi tehsil council has, through a unanimously adopted resolution, imposed taxes worth Rs1,000 on white stone and Rs2,000 on granite per truck on transportation of minerals out of the tehsil.



The resolution was further endorsed by the Mansehra district council and allowed TMA to collect tax by erecting barriers on Chappar Road, Oghi Road and Gali Badral Road from June 1. Truck drivers are dissatisfied by the decision and have decided to hold a strike. Mine owners will join them on Friday.

Up in arms

According to Marwat, more than 600 mines in Mansehra are paying millions in taxes to the provincial government every year. “Apart from seven other types of taxes, each mine owner pays Rs250,000 every month to the government as royalty,” he said. “PTI leader Jahangir Tareen has to pay Rs3.5 million monthly for his mines.”

He added there were 3,000 miners engaged in excavating minerals while hundreds of workers were earning their livelihood from mineral-related industrial units across K-P. He said if the TMA does not withdraw its decision to tax workers, mine owners in the region would stop working during the next phase. “This will result in losses worth millions of rupees to the provincial government,” he added.

Matter of welfare

Oghi tehsil nazim Raja Bashir confirmed that TMA has asked its staff to collect taxes from June 1 as mine owners were using the roads, but were reluctant to spend on their rehabilitation or on the welfare of residents in the area where they were excavating minerals from

He said TMA has imposed the tax under section 42 of K-P Local Government Act, 2013 and it was legal.

So far, the strike is likely to continue for an indefinite period of time.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2016.