KARACHI, March 23: As the shopkeepers and traders of 17 towns of the city continue to receive summons and arrest warrants from judicial magistrates for not paying trade licence fee during the last three years, but there has been some relief for traders in just one town of the mega city.
Traders of Saddar Town would see the relief over the lingering issue of trade licence fee after an understanding reached between Saddar Town Nazim Mohammad Dilawar and members of the Alliance of Market Association (AMA) here on Wednesday.
According to AMA president Atiq Mir it was decided in the meeting that a sum of Rs300 per annum had been fixed for the traders as licence fee irrespective of their trade and business category. The recovery of the amount would be made through token system while the token would also be considered as the licence.
As many as 400,000 shopkeepers, cottage unit owners and traders run their businesses in Saddar Town area. The town is expected to collect Rs120 million per annum from the stakeholders, he said.
The Town Nazim assured the AMA members that the 60 per cent of the amount collected would be spent on development work and on improving the security system of the markets.
He also announced in the meeting about suspension of summon and arrest warrants issued to the traders during the last one month. He asked the traders to submit the copy of summon and warrants in the association office and Town Municipal Officer of Saddar.
Atiq Mir said that a five-member committee had been set up in the meeting which would monitor the performance of the Saddar Town regarding development work, besides keeping an eye over the amount to be collected under licence fee and its proper utilization in the area.
He said that traders in other 17 towns of the city were still perturbed over summon and warrants and urged the town nazims to find out an amicable solution of the issue.
It may be mentioned here that judicial magistrates from last month had started issuing summons to the traders for not paying licence fee for the current and previous years. Many traders failing to comply with the orders of judicial magistrate to appear in the court were receiving arrest warrants requiring them to pay heavy sums for bail otherwise they would be arrested.
The City District Government of Karachi (CDGK) had come up with an idea three years back of trade licence fee. Depending on the category of business the government had fixed the amount from minimum Rs100 to Rs2,000 as maximum limit of licence fee.
The government while forcing the traders to pay the fee had given a justification of imposing the fee on those businesses which fell in the category of dangerous and offensive trade like cloth, paper, wood, chemical, plastic, furniture, electronic items, rubber, toys, shoes, leather, paint, tent etc., as these items may lead to fire or fatal accidents. As such people associated with these trade should be bound to make licence.
At that time, the city government issued advertisement in newspapers about the new move of licence fee and sought suggestions from the trade bodies but the traders gave a very poor response while AMA and other trade associations totally rejected the city government’s decision.
