PESHAWAR: The business community here has described the government decision to give tax relief to shopkeepers consuming less than 150 units of electricity a month as insufficient and demanded abolition the fixed sales tax immediately.

The traders warned the government of launching an organised protest campaign across the province if it didn’t withdraw its decision forthwith.

According to a statement issued here on Wednesday, the traders and industrialists said in a joint meeting that the collection of fixed tax through power bills was unacceptable and it should be abolished. They said the traders had already paid the sales tax and they considered the new tax in bills as double taxation.

Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Hasnain Khurshid Ahmad chaired the meeting where the business community representatives who shared their views also included SCCI’s senior vice-president Imran Khan Mohmand, vice-president Javed Akhtar, FPCCI former president Ghazanfar Bilour, Industrialist Association Peshawar president Malik Imran Ishaq, Anjuman-i-Tajiran Peshawar chairman Shaukat Ali Khan and its president Mohammad Afzal.

Without differentiating between small- and large-scale businesses and warehouses, the forced system of ‘fixed’ sales tax on commercial power metres was a reflection of the government’s anti-business policies, they said.

The traders said they were already paying sales tax and the collection of Rs3,000 to Rs20,000 fixed tax through power bills was unfair.

The SCCI chief also rejected the frequent increase in power tariff and collection of charges under the Fuel Price Adjustment in power bills. He asked the government to immediately withdraw such taxes.

Khurshid Ahmad asked the federal government to refrain from imposing anti-business policies, as the traders and poor people couldn’t afford any new tax and subsequent inflation.

The chamber’s president vowed to resist the government’s decision of the fixed ‘sales tax’ on power bills by launching an agitation across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2022