Traders protest signboard tax imposition

Argue signboards serve as identification, not advertising

RAWALPINDI:

The district administration and food authority have sent an annual signboard tax of Rs75,000 to all shops in all small and big markets and commercial centres of Rawalpindi city on the (advertising) boards installed on the shops.

A warning has also been issued to submit the board tax bill by December 31. Officials have begun to check the passing certificate license of the measuring scales (Tarakari), sparking protests by shopkeepers.

Saleem Pervez Butt, who is the president of the Grocery Merchants Association (GMA), says name boards installed at the shops across the city are not advertising boards but shop identification boards. These are only installed for the convenience of the citizens and buyers so that they can easily approach from a distance.

"Traders don't take any advertising benefit from these boards. If the shopkeeper installs any board on the electricity pole or outside his shop, tax is levied on it, but Rs75,000 tax on shop identification boards is injustice," Butt adds.

He further says if the government, the district food authority, and the district administration want to collect this tax by force, then the rate should be fixed at Rs1,000 to Rs2,000 annually as traders won't pay more than this in any case.