Traders demand tax exemption amid rain damage

Battered by the record rainfall that lashed Karachi this week and dismayed by the lacklustre city administration, traders in the metropolis called for tax exemptions and interest-free loans on Friday to help them recover from the damage.

Dubbing the city 'disaster-stricken', All Karachi Industrial Alliance President Mian Zahid Hussain said that government representatives were hiding behind the unprecedented rainfall - the monsoon this year broke a 90 year record - to excuse their incompetence and lack of performance.

The governance system in Karachi had deteriorated in the past decades, Hussain noted, opining that only temporary provisions were made during emergency situations in Karachi but no permanent or durable solutions were provided for the problems that plague the country's economic hub. Regular amounts of rainfall also left the city of millions paralysed, he added.

"The metropolis is facing electricity and gas outages, its gutters are overflowing, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board remains dysfunctional, foreign trade remains suspended, but the provincial and local governments continue to play the blame game instead of finding solutions," Hussain decried.

Underlining the damage incurred due to accumulated rain and sewerage water, and flash floods, on houses, goods, food items, warehouses, under-construction projects, and more, Hussain demanded that the government waive taxes completely for a year and provide interest-free loans to citizens to prevent businesses and individuals from going bankrupt.

"The current infrastructure cannot bear rainfall and its crumbling state will only weaken the economy," maintained Hussain, adding that conditions would remain the same until the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan-led local government and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led Centre improved the infrastructure and ended the culture of corruption. "Offering explanations while leaving the city as is can no longer be an option."

He expressed wonderment at the provincial government cancelling the leaves of all its employees after the death and destruction caused by the excessive rainfall, and questioned how the employees would reach their workplaces, given that most of the city was submerged in water.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2020.