FAISALABAD, March 23: Over two dozen trader bodies threatened on Tuesday to protest on roads if the district government and the tehsil municipal administration failed to withdraw various new taxes imposed on shopkeepers and cottage industries.

At a meeting held here on Tuesday under the chair of All Pakistan Anjuman Tajran chairman Shahid Razzaq Sikka, it was noted that the traders and industrialists approached higher authorities for withdrawal of trade and godown taxes, but all their efforts proved futile because of indifferent attitude of the agencies concerned.

The traders, Mian Abdul Mannan, Sheikh Bashir Ahmad, Muhammad Ali Rana, Imtiaz Rabbani, and Shahzad Alam, said the business activities throughout the country had come to a standstill due to ill-conceived policies of the government.

The traders are being asked to pay taxes on one pretext or the other by the bureaucracy just to bring a bad name to the Musharraf government. They further claimed that the district government had imposed a trade tax on the small shopkeepers, which was highly unjustified as the same type of tax was being received by the TMA (city). Not only this, the district government had increased the fee on godowns to Rs10,000 annually.

Besides, the TMA (city) had imposed a new tax of Rs125 per powerloom daily and started it charging by force. This step on the part of TMA would create law and order problem in the city, as the small powerloom owners were not in a position to pay heavy taxes to local councils.

They demanded Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi to direct the district and city Nazims for the immediate withdrawal of these taxes.

MURDER: A youth clubbed to death his elder brother in Chak 89-JB on Tuesday. Zulfiqar had a dispute with his younger brother Abdul Sattar over some domestic issue. Both the brothers exchanged hot words with each other and Abdul Sattar attacked his brother with a club due to which he sustained serious head injuries and died on the spot. The area police have registered a case against the accused.