LARKANA, May 11: Talks between the provincial agriculture minister and trade bodies regarding the modus operandi of market committee tax have failed.

A press release on Tuesday said that Sindh, Balochistan Rice Millers and Traders Association (SBRMTA) senior vice-president Haji Qamaruddin Shaikh led the traders' delegation in the talks with the minister on Monday in Karachi.

The press statement said that a meeting of the traders would be held on Sunday in Larkana to formulate a strategy against the government's stance on the issue of market committee tax.

All Pakistan Organization of Small Traders and Cottage Industries, Sindh, president Mashooque Jatoi and Dadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ghulam Shah Malkani also attended the Karachi talks.

They held that allotting contract of collecting market tax was illegal and the market fee could only be charged on agriculture produce when it was transported to market and sold to licence holders.

They said that the government in violation of the law had awarded contracts and the contractors were collecting "market fee" by illegally establishing checkpoints. They said that there were no grain markets in Thatta, Badin, Dadu and other districts but contracts had been awarded for collecting market fee from growers, traders and millers.

Gangs stop the trucks loaded with agriculture produce at gunpoint on main roads to collect tax, they alleged. The traders said that on one hand dacoits were looting them and on the other Sindh government was fleecing money by constituting what they called "black laws" and that was why the industry in Punjab was flourishing and in Sindh it was facing crisis.

It was uncalled for that despite clear orders from Sindh agriculture minister, secretary and director-general to stop collecting the market committee fee, the practice continued, they said.

The traders' representatives urged the Sindh governor and chief minister to do away with the contract system and form market committee to collect fee in accordance with the existing laws.

SALARIES: Nearly 212 work-charge employees of the Public Health Department, Larkana, have not received salaries for the last 16 months. Representatives of the work-charge employees held a meeting with the district coordination officer (DCO), Dr Badaruddin Ujjan, on Tuesday and demanded the early release of their salaries.