MULTAN, Aug 10: The Pakistan Traders Alliance has rejected the new income tax policy and decided not to file returns.

Speaking at a press conference, PTA chairman Khwaja Shafiq alleged that the bureaucracy of the Central Board of Revenue had hatched a conspiracy against the business community by abolishing the Self Assessment Scheme.

According to him, it was almost impossible for any trader to meet the criterion of the newly introduced Universal Self-Assessment Scheme.

He said that under the new scheme, the traders would have to maintain seven to eight registers; record entries of refreshments they offered to their visitors; give appointment letters to their employees; give salaries to their employees through banks; book-keeping of all the purchases and sales and issuance of cash memo even on the sale of goods worth Rs100.

The PTA chief said the traders would have to officially record all kinds of deferred payments on any purchase or sale along with complete address, national income tax number and sales tax registration number of the party they entered with in transaction.

He said traders would further have to always keep ready their books containing record of last five years for scrutiny.

He announced that PTA was organizing an all-Pakistan traders convention in Multan in the last week of August or in the first week of the next month to envisage an unanimous policy against the ‘unjustified and impractical’ Universal Self-Assessment Scheme.

Opposition: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Liaquat Baloch has claimed that there are no differences among the opposition parties on the issues of LFO and restoration of the 1973 constitution.

Talking at the local press club, he said: “The opposition parties may have a difference of opinion on some clauses of the Legal Framework Order, but they have a consensus on main points like supremacy of the parliament and a sustainable democratic system in the country.”

He was of the view that the outcome of public meetings of the MMA at Liaquat Bagh and the ARD at Lahore on Aug 14 would be the same, as both reflected aspirations of the nation with regard to the future of democracy in the country.

Mr Baloch said the MMA wanted to resolve the national crisis through a dialogue. “The ball is now in government’s court, and it has not much time to decide the timeframe regarding the issue of president’s uniform.”

He however added that it would be encouraging to see the proposed constitutional package being discussed in the parliament.

He said the opposition could launch a protest drive as the last resort if the government-MMA dialogue did not prove fruitful.