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MULTAN, June 14: Local politicians and business community have formed an action committee to compel city tehsil administration to withdraw ‘terrible’ taxes it wants to impose in the coming fiscal.
The committee was constituted during a meeting organized by chamber of small traders here on Friday.
Participants in the meeting discussed the proposed tax schedule of the administration and unanimously declared it ‘unbearable.’ They said taxation of the local body had forced all the local business organizations to forge an alliance to challenge the levies.
PTA Chairman Khwaja Shafiq said the local business community was optimistic that district Nazim Faisal Mukhtar would create business-friendly atmosphere in Multan, adding he had disappointed with his vision.
The meeting constituted the action committee under the chairmanship of PTA chief Khwaja Shafiq. Representatives of leading businessmen and politicians were on the committee.
It was decided that the people should submit objections against the proposed taxation by June 15.
A rally would be organized on June 20 in front of the city tehsil administration office in Ghanta Ghar Chowk to protest the unjustified taxation, it was decided.
The meeting urged the Punjab governor to take stock of the situation and order withdrawal of massive taxation.
REJECTED: PML (QA) leader Syed Fakhar Imam has rejected official cotton policy for 2002-2003 and urged the government to review it.
Through a press statement on Friday, he said the cotton crop this year was undergoing a depression. He said farmers had for the last couple of years been going through ordeal due to shortage of irrigation water.
He said the cotton growers received an average price of Rs650 to 750 per 40kg of phutti (seed cotton) during the last season in 2001-2002, although, the support price was fixed Rs785 per 40kg.
He maintained the cotton growers were confronting with uncertain marketing conditions which had compounded their problems. Since the last cotton season, he said the cost of raising up the crop had been increased considerably due to the imposition of 15 per cent GST on pesticides, an increase of five per cent in fertilizer prices, 40 per cent in diesel prices and 20 per cent in electricity charges.
Mr Imam said the phutti price this year should not be less than Rs900 per 40kg. “Such an increase can only be an incentive to the growers to increase the area under cotton and put in more inputs for better per acre yield,” he asserted.
He urged the government to ensure purity of the pesticides and fertilizers because the cotton crop had become increasingly technical that needed farm chemicals with an exact strength to produce the desired results.
He underlined the need for proper advice to the growers during the times of pest attacks in the fields in order to avoid any major financial loss to them.
