KARACHI, Feb 25: Shopkeepers and traders of the city, who had refused to pay the trade licence fee three years back, have now started receiving summons from the judicial magistrates to give reasons for not paying the fee for the current and previous years.

Many traders failing to comply with the orders of judicial magistrates to appear in the court are also receiving arrest warrants requiring them to pay heavy sums for bail otherwise they would be arrested.

The situation has created unrest among various market associations whose members feel harassment. Leaders of trade bodies think that there is no justification for demanding trade licence fee from the traders as they are already paying professional tax to the provincial government.

Alliance of Market Association (AMA) chairman Atiq Mir said that the city government had come out with an idea of trade licence fee in 2003 and sought feed back from the market associations before its implementation. The city government demanded Rs200-Rs2,000 per annum from all categories of trade right from push cart owners to shopkeepers depending on their business volume and size of shops, he added.

At that time trade bodies had rejected the move on the grounds that they could not afford to pay two taxes. Later, the issue fizzled out, he said.

Recently, some city government officials started visiting the markets and began conducting shop-to-shop survey. Many of the city government officials said that this had been a routine exercise. Soon after that, many traders had started receiving summons and also arrest warrants, the AMA chairman said.

Many traders had complaint that they were also being forced to pay three to four year of licence fee, he said.

Mr Atiq said that the shopkeepers and traders were already paying Rs500-5,000 as professional tax. “Traders are ready to pay one tax instead of two taxes,” he added.

Karachi Electronic Dealers Association (KEDA) president Abdul Waheed Memon said that representatives of various market associations held a meeting on Saturday and formed an eight-member committee to hold talks with the City Nazim to resolve the issue immediately.

The committee comprises Atiq Mir, Haji Haroon Chand, Anis Majeed, Rafiq Jadoon, Mohammad Farooq, Siddiq Memon and Javed Arsalan Khan. He is also the member of the committee.

He recalled that City Nazim Mustafa Kamal had assured the traders in a meeting six days back that the trade licence issue would be resolved through mutual understanding.

He said that many traders who had received summons were also asked to pay licence fee from 1999.