Traders protest against Sales Tax in KE bills

JI supports traders, demands withdrawal of decision in two days

KARACHI:

Traders of Karachi's suburbs also joined the protest against the collection of Rs6,000 additional Sales Tax from electricity bills.

Representatives of traders threatened to close the city's entry and exit points if the Rs6,000 levy was not removed from the power bills.

Protesters burnt electricity bills and chanted slogans against KE during the protest.

Protesting traders announced that they wouldn't pay their electrical bills and said that we are already paying Sales Tax on our electricity bills. Unfortunately, closed shops are now levied to pay an extra Sales Tax of at least Rs6,000.

Therefore, the electricity bills won't be paid until the additional Sales Tax is removed. They further said that the burden of additional Sales Tax is now imposed on the domestic customer, which Karachi citizens would not tolerate.

Meanwhile, Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi, Hafiz Naeem-ur- Rehman has said that Federal government's decision of charging Rs6,000 per month in terms of Sales Tax in the K-Electric bills is not acceptable.

He said that if the government does not remove the Sales Tax from K-E bills within two days, they will stage a sit-in along with the traders at important places in the city.

He said that they could use the option of strike in city as well. He went on to say that they will organise a big "Businessmen convention" on Tuesday, July 26, at Noor-ul-Haq.

He said that Sales Tax should be separated from the K-Electric bills and should be levied fairly after consultation with the traders.

He said that Finance Minister, Miftah Ismail has no authority to levy any kind of tax without consultation with the KCCI.

He said that every businessman of Karachi is willing to pay tax but unfair taxation is not acceptable to them. By criticizing Miftah Ismail, he said that Miftah is bound to tell us that, why he imposed the Sales Tax on the traders of Karachi despite the fact that Karachi is the highest tax paying city of the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2022.