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| June 8, 2005 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 30, 1426 |
Traders call for withdrawal of ‘discriminatory’ tax
GILGIT, June 7: Northern Areas’ traders who have been importing goods from neighbouring China have expressed grave concern over the resumption of levying the so-called Dassu tax in Kohistan district on the Karakoram Highway.
In a resolution passed unanimously the Northern Areas importers and exporters association said that the Kohistan administration had been charging Rs 15,000 from each truck in the name of NWFP development fund.
They said the arbitrary tax issue emerged last year, which was settled through negotiations with the NWFP government, and following successful parleys the collection of Dassu tax was stopped.
“But now the traders importing goods from China are being asked to pay Dassu tax in Kohistan in violation of the agreement reached last year,” the Northern Areas traders body said.
They said that all the districts were getting government grants in lieu of octroi that was abolished in 1999 but in Kohistan district the practice of collecting octroi was still in vogue without any justification.
They said this new tax (Dassu tax) is selective as the traders belonged to the Northern Areas are forced to pay the tax otherwise their trucks are not allowed to go ahead.
They called upon the Northern Areas administration to hold a dialogue with the NWFP government in this regard as they accused the Kohistan district coordination officer had been introducing this to fill his personal coffers.
stolen vehicles: Authorities in all six districts of the Northern Areas have started to impound stolen cars or those vehicles with dual registration.
Police sources said that up to 40 vehicles had been seized on Sunday as part of the campaign.
They said that the police had specifically been targeting vehicles that had been stolen in other parts of the country or those vehicles with dual registration papers. Vehicle smugglers often draw up a fake set of registration papers to lure unsuspecting customers into buying stolen cars.
The sources said that among the stolen vehicles were Suzuki vans, Mehrans and Khybers which were available in the region at incredibly low prices ranging from Rs50,000 to Rs150,000 depending on the condition of the car.
Despite the fact that there were still thousands of similar cars plying on the roads, the police impounded only those cars that belonged to ordinary people, the sources said.
The drive against illegal vehicles does not cover vehicles with unpaid customs duty – whose number is thought to be in thousands. For the time being, however, only Pakistan-assembled vehicles were being impounded for investigations, the sources said.
They also said that the vehicle smuggling racket from the neighbouring NWFP had been in full swing since 1998, despite the fact that these illegal vehicles had to pass through around 100 police checkposts on the Karakoram Highway from Basham to Gilgit.
ADVISORY BODY: The district advisory committee of Gilgit district has identified development schemes worth Rs300 million for the next fiscal year which would be carried out in various parts of the district, official sources said.
They said the members of the Northern Areas Legislative Council had been asked to identify development schemes worth Rs50million for the next fiscal year.
They said the advisory committee of Gilgit district was finalizing the vital development projects while other districts are likely to submit their proposals regarding the development projects within a week.
The sources further disclosed that now the process of approving the projects would be conducted within the region than in Islamabad and as such they (projects) would take few weeks to be finalized.
Meanwhile the regional secretary works Nasir Ali Shigri had directed the Public Works Department to ensure completion of ongoing projects within the stipulated period as he would brook no delaying tactics.
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