PESHAWAR: Differences have surfaced between the Cantonment Board Peshawar (CBP) and the business community over imposition of taxes on the signboards and heavy power generators used by the traders.

A source in the CBP told this correspondent on Friday that the board had decided to levy taxes on the signboards and power generators in order to increase its revenue, but it was facing problems in implementation of the decision due to opposition from the traders’ unions.

The taxes, he said, would be imposed from the current year on commercial generators and signboards on the basis of generators’ capacity and the size of signboards. He said that the traders’ bodies were opposing it and they were not ready to sit and discuss whatever suggestions they had in this regard.

The traders said that the tax on generators would be between Rs3,000 and Rs20,000 annually, while the tax on signboards was set at Rs500 per square foot. They threatened to start protest demonstrations if the tax was imposed forcefully.

Anjuman-i-Tajiran president Sharafat Ali Mubrak said that tax collection on power generators and signboards was entirely unjustified and the traders would not accept it.

“No one has so far taken the traders into confidence regarding the tax collection and thus the business community rejects the CBP’s decision to collect these taxes,” he said and suggested that the CBP should impose taxes on the multinational companies instead of teasing the local small-scale traders.

Mr Mubrak said that the district government Peshawar had also imposed tax on power generators in the city areas, but the traders held a meeting with district nazim Arbab Asim and he withdrew the decision.

When contacted, CBP vice-chairman Waris Khan Afridi said that the decision to impose tax on power generators and signboards was taken in year 2000 in all cantonment boards across the country when there was no civil representation in the boards.

He said that small-scale traders had been exempted from these taxes because it was levied only on commercial power generators used by various banks, hotels, restaurants and departmental stores.

“The tax has been imposed only on fixed generators having capacity of over 5KV while movable ones are exempted,” he explained.

The CBP vice-chairman said that one shop with one signboard had also been exempted from this tax, but huge billboards and signboards mainly used for advertisement of multinational companies would be charged.

He also opposed the provincial government’s plan to collect professional tax in the limits of the cantonment board. “The excise department has distributed its tax collection papers in the cantonment areas, but only CBP can collect professional tax in the area. The excise department of the provincial government has no legal right to collect such tax in the cantonment,” he said.

Mr Afridi said that in 2012 the Supreme Court had empowered only the CBPs to collect the tax. Efforts were made to get the views of the excise department on the issue, but the relevant official was not available on phone.

Meanwhile, Awami National Party’s provincial secretary information Haroon Bashir Bilour rejected the imposition of taxes on power generators and signboards and described it an illogical decision by the cantonment board.

In a statement here on Friday, the ANP leader said that the business community had heavily suffered due to terrorism during past many years.

He asked the provincial government to take notice of the new taxes levied by CBP and support the business community so that business activities in the violence-hit province could be revived.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2016