Businessmen plan protest against govt policies

Traders will also participate in rally on Tuesday to get demands heard

KARACHI: Businessmen and traders - who are believed to have played a crucial role in getting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) elected in July 2018 - are all set to take to streets in protest against what they say are government’s anti-business policies and hard-hitting budget for FY20, apparently prepared on the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Thousands of businessmen and traders are expected to participate in a rally to be held in the port city of Karachi on Tuesday in protest against the anti-business budget presented by the government for FY20.

A convention of hundreds of businessmen held in Multan on Sunday (June 30) had already issued a seven-day ultimatum to the government for withdrawing the anti-business budget, which they had already rejected.

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Traders will consider the option of a shutter-down strike nationwide at the end of the ultimatum if the government does not withdraw 17% sales tax on businesses, stop sending Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) “corrupt” officials to harass traders in markets, does not withdraw the condition of acquiring CNIC (computerised national identity card) copy from unregistered buyers, does not reverse the increase in tariffs of power and gas, does not revise down the key interest rate and fails to stop a free fall of the rupee against the dollar.

About 700 textile processing mills announced on Monday that they had already suspended production at their factories from July 1. They said the cost of doing business had increased by 40% due to the 17% sales tax on registered and 20% on unregistered buyers, which no one was ready to pay.

Jodia Bazaar Traders Association General Secretary Abdul Qadir Noorani said that earlier the protest rally was scheduled to be held some 17 to 18 days ago but PTI’s Sindh Assembly member Khurram Sher Zaman brokered a meeting with Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, who convinced businessmen to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue and withdraw the protest rally call.

“The Sindh governor had promised to fix a meeting between the businessmen and FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi for addressing our concerns. However, nothing has happened since then,” he said.

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The rally on Tuesday would deliberate on available options to persuade the government to withdraw the sales tax and the condition of acquiring CNIC copy of unregistered buyers. “The options may include a shutter-down strike,” he said. Big markets of the city that will participate in the rally include Jodia Bazaar, Saddar electronics market, Tariq Road markets, main cloth market at Tower and Shershah scrap market.

“The markets will resume work on Tuesday, but will only work in the first half of the day,” said Karachi Electronic Dealers Association (KEDA) President Muhammad Rizwan.

All Karachi Tajir Ittehad Chairman Atiq Mir claimed some 4,000 to 5,000 businessmen and traders would participate in the Tuesday rally, which would commence from Regal Chowk (roundabout) at around 3pm and culminate at the Karachi Press Club. “The All Karachi Tajir Ittehad is a grand alliance of some 600 small and big markets in the city of Karachi alone,” he said.

“About 3,000 businessmen and traders had assembled at the Multan convention yesterday (Sunday) from across all four provinces of the country to devise a strategy as to how to get the government to withdraw the anti-business budget and other policies,” he revealed.

He said businesses had already started closing down due to high inflation and a colossal hike in key interest rate, which made credit for businesses very expensive, while 32% depreciation of the rupee against the dollar in the just ended FY19 made imports very expensive.

“All the factors are making a huge contribution to the closure of business units,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2019.

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