LAHORE: The All Pakistan Anjumn-i-Tajiran (APAT) has decided to postpone its countrywide strike against SRO 608, scheduled for Dec 31 in the wake of Peshawar incident.

This was stated by APAT Central Chairman Khwaja Shafiq, Central President Ajmal Baloch and Secretary-General Naeem Mir in a joint statement on Saturday.

The statement said traders had unanimously rejected SRO 608(I)/2014 and called for its immediate withdrawal. He urged the government to facilitate the business community to put the economy back on fast track of growth.

It said the traders had already requested the government to put in place the mechanism of public-private dialogue so that the policies could be made result-oriented. Without controlling smuggling and under invoicing going on at the massive level it would not be possible for the government to get desired economic results.

The FBR should avoid implementing the SRO without the consultation of the business community for being the main stakeholders and should make the changes through a public-private dialogue.

Naeem Mir said the FBR was shifting its burden of monitoring and tracking of the tax system on the business community which was unjust and unethical.

“If the FBR is interested in broadening the tax net, it should bring all the sectors into the net instead of creating troubles for the registered persons who are already doing business in the presence of multiple internal and external challenges,” he said.

Published in Dawn December 21th , 2014