Pindi traders threaten shutter down against ‘shop board tax’
Shops on Murree Road were closed by the authorities in compliance with the weekend lockdown order (left), but the Bara Ba-zaar carried out business activities in full swing on Saturday. PHOTOS: EXPRESS/AGHA MEHROZ
Traders have expressed their strong reservation against bills under the head of “shop board tax” issued to them by the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) and the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA).
The shop owners and traders’ associations have started to protest against the PHA’s notices demanding the shopkeepers to remove boards from their outlets in case of non-payment of the inflated bills. Business organisations have decided to meet with the Rawalpindi Commissioner and the deputy commissioner to find a solution.
Sources said, if negotiations with the two officers remain unsuccessful, a complete shutter-down strike will be observed, and protest rallies will be taken out in all small and large markets and commercial areas throughout Rawalpindi.
Salim Parvez Butt, the president Anjuman-e-Tajran Karyana Merchant, said the PHA had sent a board tax bill of Rs42,840 to a shopkeeper selling spices in Raja Bazaar and warned that if the board tax was not paid within four days, the shop's boards would be taken down and it will be sealed.
Butt said the board tax used to be just Rs1,000. “We can pay Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 as board tax instead of Rs1000, but we cannot pay between Rs50,000 to Rs100,000 in respect of board tax,” he maintained.
Traders termed the board tax as a “goon tax”, vowing not to pay it in any case. They said the small shops have boards to identify them as grocery, plumbing, welding, hairdresser, electrician, oven and dairy shops. “These are not business boards,” they explained and added that two government agencies have started collecting board tax separately from the same shop which is cruelty and injustice. “Both the organisations are sending consecutive notices to the shopkeepers and both maintain that they are authorised to collect board tax. We won't let that happen,” they said.
Meanwhile, Sharjeel Mir, Central President of the Central Association of Traders, said: “We will meet the Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner in the next two days on this most important issue and if the matter could not be settled, then the traders will react strongly.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2022.