Beauticians take to the streets against new taxes

Say the fresh levies will make it difficult to survive in the industry

LAHORE: Beauty parlours and salon owners held a demonstration in front of the provincial assembly against the recent imposition of professional tax on their services.

The salon owners’ protest was led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Imran Nazir and MPA Sadia Taimoor. Owners of various beauty salons participated in the agitation and chanted slogans against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for imposing tax on their sector.

Beauty parlour owner Mrs Khan said she was already paying taxes on utility bills, municipal fees and on other all inputs being consumed in parlours. In the present economic situation, she said, business was already sluggish and now the government was trying to put the last nail in their coffin by imposing new taxes.

She said the PTI government won the election with a promise to recover looted money from absconders, but after coming into power, it is trying milk common citizens who were already bearing the brunt of inflation.



PML-N leader Khawaja Imran Nazir said hundreds of families are associated with the beauty parlour business. The government is trying to snatch employment from them by imposing new taxes. He also underscored that everyone in the country is paying tax, including beauty salons, on the purchase of all products. “It doesn’t matter whether you buy a toothpaste or a motor car; you have to pay tax,” he highlighted.

He said PML-N will challenge this new tax in a court of law or take to the streets if the government does not withdraw it. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan has falsely claimed that nobody is paying taxes in the country, when, in fact, people were not filing tax returns.

Meanwhile, others at the protest said people of this industry had already been burdened by the 16% tax on cosmetics. They said this new levy would make it impossible for them to survive, with one protester even saying the only option left was to commit suicide. The protestors demanded that the government eliminate the new taxes imposed on beauticians and hairdressers.

“If our demands are not met by the government, we will expand this protest across Punjab,” one of them said. The protestors held placards which were inscribed with different slogans. They concluded that the demonstration was peaceful up till this point, but the government would be responsible for any further action.

Not only beauty parlours

Property dealer Muhammad Mujahid Butt said that his sector has been under tremendous stress since the PML-N regime. Speaking to The Express Tribune, he said the PML-N government had placed levies on the property business and now PTI had imposed professional tax on property dealers, developers and contractors. “This new taxation will negatively impact the property and construction sector across Punjab.

Butt said that on one hand, the government was trying to provide a boom to the construction sector by developing low-cost housing, but it was also imposing new taxes on construction and property sector. “There is a contradiction in the government’s own policy and this strengthens the opposition’s claim that the leaders are immature,” he maintained.

Last week, professional tax rates were raised for factory-owners, commercial establishments, developers, exporters, importers, contractors, builders and property developers.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2019.