HYDERABAD: The city’s grain market remained shuttered on Wednesday in protest against government plans to impose withholding tax on pulses, which was to be recovered by millers from wholesalers and retailers.

All shops in Anaj Mandi and Tower Market remained shut while office-bearers of the Hyderabad Daal Mills Owners Association also staged a protest in SITE area and later held a press conference at the local press club.

The association’s president Salahuddin Qureshi told journalists that withholding tax was never imposed on pulses in any government during the last 75-year history of the country, considering the fact that pulses was the poor man’s staple food.

He said that through that tax, millers were being required to work as withholding tax collectors because they were supposed to recover it in advance from the wholesalers and retailers and deposit it with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

He said the millers always paid income tax and no advance tax was imposed on pulses.

Mr Qureshi said different rates of taxes were defined for filers and non-filers by the government for the recovery of withholding tax. “The tax has not been imposed, but the government has conveyed it to the sector that it will take effect,” he said and added that today’s strike was observed across Pakistan.

He feared that this would increase the cost of food because Pakistan was already facing energy crisis in which tariff of electric supply had been increased substantially. This cost, he said, was always recovered from consumers’ pocket by manufacturers and retailers.

According to a daal mill owner, Sikandar Rajput, 0.1pc tax was to be recovered by pulses’ importers from wholesalers if latter was a filer and it was 2.5pc if wholesaler was non-filer.

He said that importer had to recover 2pc withholding tax from manufacturer if he was non-filer and retailer would pay 0.5pc to manufacturer if he was filer and 2.5pc if he was non-filer. If the tax was imposed, the price of pulses would increase by Rs20 to Rs30 a kilo simply, he said.

The Grain, Seeds and Oil Merchants Association led by Haji Haroon Memon and Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam also observed the strike in the market by sitting outside their workplaces after closing the offices and shops.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2024