Shah Mehmood Qureshi raps withholding tax

PTI national organiser calls for tax to be immediately withdrawn

MULTAN: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) national organiser Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday lambasted the imposition of a 0.6 per cent withholding tax on bank transactions.

Qureshi was speaking to journalists at the press club. He demanded that the tax to be immediately withdrawn and said the PTI stood with traders on this account. He said the imposition of the tax would be one of the things that would come under discussion at a forthcoming party meeting in Islamabad. Qureshi said the government had introduced the tax to promote dollarisation and a cash economy.

He said the imposition of the irrational tax had been discussed with PTI chief Imran Khan. Qureshi said Khan had directed that traders’ misgivings to be dealt with on priority. He said the party would consider convening a session of the National Assembly on the issue.

Qureshi said the tax would have an extremely adverse impact on the national economy. He said traders would gradually close their bank accounts in the wake of the tax’s imposition. Qureshi said commercial banks had already been struggling to find depositors. He said the tax would exacerbate the challenge. Qureshi said the tax could lead to an increase in incidence of double taxation. He said this would particularly hit the salaried class hard. Qureshi said chambers of commerce and industries nationwide were not happy about the taxation culture being fostered by the government.

He revealed that senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders from Gujranwala would join the PTI on July 9 as the party had emerged as an alternative to the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Qureshi said the judicial commission constituted to probe allegations of electoral malpractice in the 2013 general elections was expected to give its verdict before Eid. He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would have to dissolve assemblies and call for fresh elections if the allegations were substantiated.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2015.