KARACHI: Cargo agents and freight forwarders have jointly given a deadline of Aug 31 to the government for withdrawing the eight per cent turnover tax on the services industry, and threatened an indefinite strike from Sept 1 if the demand is not met.

Pakistan International Freight Forwarders Association’s (Piffa) Chairman Asim Saeed said that more than 560 members of the association would stop issuing delivery orders for the clearance of cargo at all the outlets across the country.

Talking to Dawn over the telephone, he said, “We tried our best to convince the high-ups of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for withdrawing the unjust 8pc minimum tax because freight forwarders are operating on a narrow margin which hardly exceeds 2pc to 3pc.”

Freight forwarders, he said, have been pushed to a point where they were left with no choice but to take an extreme step.

“There will be no movement of cargoes from Sept 1. Even courier companies will stop their services and operations at all the airports, dry and sea ports.”

The Piffa members and other service providers have received notices by tax authorities for opening up of their cases from 2009, he said.

He said if the government did not take the matter seriously, over one million people would lose jobs in case of a strike.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2015

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