Oil tanker contractors go on strike

The tanker contractors association says that the Federal Board of Revenue is demanding additional income tax.

KARACHI: The All Pakistan Oil Tanker Contractors Association went on strike on Tuesday saying that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was demanding additional income tax from oil contractors. However, some oil tanker contractors kept on operating their tankers throughout the day.

The FBR says that contractors reacted only when asked to pay the income tax they were not paying before.

The spokesperson of the FBR, Asrar Rauf, told The Express Tribune that contractors are affluent individuals who have not been paying income tax in the past. “Everyone has to pay income tax. The FBR has asked oil tanker contractors to file their returns which they have not been filing in the past and have been getting away by just filing statements. Abidullah Afridi, the president of the All Pakistan Oil Tanker Contractors Association, said that the FBR is levying unjust income tax on oil contractors because the contractors pay various taxes like toll tax, etcetera.

“The FBR is slapping irrelevant taxes on oil tanker contractors. We are forced to go on strike and the responsibility is on the shoulders of FBR officials,” Afridi said.

However, Wali Khan, an oil tanker contractor in Karachi, said that only a few contractors with vested interests have gone on strike.

There are two sectors in oil distribution, the FBR spokesperson explained, adding that there are oil tanker contractors and oil tanker owners. Oil contractors are the middlemen between oil marketing companies and oil tanker owners and contract oil tankers to supply oil to different parts of the country.

These contractors earn a lot of money and pay no income tax to the government, the spokesperson added.

When contacted, All Pakistan Oil Tankers Association Chairman Yousuf Shahwani said that oil contractors are creating trouble only for their vested interests. “Oil tanker contractors earn a big percentage from contracts with oil marketing companies and with oil tanker owners despite the fact that they are dependent upon us (tanker owners),” he said.

“The oil contractors’ strike will not work because we (oil tanker owners) will operate our tankers ourselves,” Shahwani added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2010.