LAHORE, Aug 1: The Pakistan Goods Transporters Association has threatened a countrywide strike next week to press for its demand for token tax exemption to trucks which is allowed to 10 years old vehicles and expressed resentment against the continuing highway robberies.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club here on Thursday, association president Chaudhry Mukhtar Ahmad and secretary general Alim Butt said denial of token tax exemption to the truck owners was discriminatory and against the principles of justice and fairplay.

They said the truck owners had not only been singled out for tax recovery but the rate prescribed was exorbitant also. They said the federal government had reviewed its decision to levy income tax on the transporters in the 1996-97 budget after the transport strike.

They were of the view that the federal government was now trying to recover the income tax under the garb of token tax from the truck owners.

They said the government had not only denied the exemption to 10 years old trucks but also decided to raise the tax rate from the Rs3,600 to Rs16,800 per annum without any justification.

They said there was no difference between the bus and the truck because both were built on the same chassis but the tax collectors had decided to victimize the truck owners without any justification.