RAWALPINDI: The Cantonment Traders Association (CTA) on Monday announced that it would observe a shutter-down strike on October 27 against the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB)’s decision to increase the property tax on commercial outlets by 1,000 to 2,000 per cent.

The association said a wheel-jam strike would also be held besides a sit-in in front of the RCB offices on the Mall.

The traders’ leaders said the cantonment authorities had made the lives of the common man and the business community miserable by increasing taxes without providing facilities to the residents.

Addressing a press conference, CTA President Sheikh Hafeez and General Secretary Zafar Qadri said that under Cantonment Act 1924, the RCB could increase the property tax by only 25pc after three years but it has now increased it by 1,000pc to 2,000pc.

They alleged corruption in the RCB and alleged that it issued a Rs8 million property tax to the owner of a commercial building and the officials concerned later reduced the amount to Rs1.5 million after getting a bribe of Rs2 million from him.

“We have all the evidence and will provide it to the relevant quarters soon,” he said.

Commercial plazas are being constructed without parking space in Saddar and other areas of the cantonment with the help of RCB officials as they allowed the builders to violate the law after taking bribe from them,” Mr Hafeez alleged.

He said the RCB did not follow the official rates of property issued by the deputy commissioner and charged more for the transfer of immovable property.

He said that it was strange that the RCB collected heavy taxes and fees from residents and traders but did not spend any money on development works and the residents were facing an acute water shortage.

He said that the only hospital in the cantonment area, Cantonment General Hospital, charged Rs200 fee from each outpatient besides heavy charges for pathological examinations and other services. “No medical facility is provided to the residents in the hospital without charges.”

He said former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had provided over Rs600 million for rehabilitation of the hospital in 2018. The RCB purchased new machinery and rehabilitated the operation theatres of the hospital.

“There are no parking lots in business centres and cleanliness situation is deteriorating. Businesses have been destroyed and traders are fed up with the situation and have decided to take to the streets,” said Zafar Qadri.

He said that there would be a shutter down and wheel jam strike and traders and civil society representatives from all over the cantonment will stage a sit-in in front of RCB offices.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2022