ISLAMABAD, July 23: The Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) on Wednesday called a nationwide strike with immediate effect in protest against non-refund of sales tax by the Central Board of Revenue.

Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, Haji Abdul Razak Basit, the PVMA chairman, said the factory closure would continue till their demands were met.

He demanded refund of sales tax on the basis of sales tax returns, unconditional return of the record of member units, withdrawal of cases against millers, stoppage of raids, adjustment of withholding tax as per profit/loss situation and abolition of sales tax on hydrocarbon.

He said the PVMA general body unanimously agreed to go on strike. He warned that any deviation on the part of any member might result in the cancellation of its membership.

He said the association was left with no other option but to call for a strike since the government was not willing to accept their demands.

He said that various committees were formed by the general body to ensure implementation of the decisions taken.

The PVMA chief said the strike could lead to a Rs5-6 per kg hike in the prices of ghee and cooking oil. He held the CBR responsible for this situation which he said did not respond to PVMA’s repeated requests for sorting out tax issues and other matters through dialogue.

He denied that some mill owners had rejected audit of their accounts by the taxmen, and said solvent extraction industry “was involved in flying invoices.”

He said the demand for a 20-per cent tax on ghee and cooking oil was in violation of Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz’s commitment he made while presenting the federal budget 2002-03 that the ghee millers would get sales tax refund.

He said a PVMA delegation held a meeting with member sales tax, CBR, to sort out the issue of value addition on input cost for determining sales tax and offered a 15-per cent value addition in input price for payment of sales tax which was rejected by the latter, who insisted that the millers should pay further tax instead of claiming refunds.

He said another offer to form a joint technical committee of CBR and PVMA to evolve a workable formula was not entertained by the CBR.

He said the ghee industry in Pakistan was heavily taxed and in such a situation the threatening attitude of the CBR officials was deplorable.

He said the CBR had agreed in an earlier meeting not to harass mill owners through raids on ghee mills but three units in Gujranwala and one in Karachi were raided by the tax collectors.