Some 500 powerloom owners set up their hunger strike camp at Manzoorabad Chowk near Chungi No 14 at 10am and remained there till 4pm.
Among the strikers were association president Muneer Husain Ansari, secretary general Khaliq Qandeel Sandhu, Haji Abdul Lateef Ansari, Qari Ameenur Rehman, Muhammad Younas and Mukhtar Ahmed Shabab.
Pakistan Traders Alliance chairman Khwaja Muhammad Shafiq also joined the hunger strike camp for a while to express solidarity with the powerloom owners.
Talking to newsmen, association president Muneer Ansari said the small scale powerlooms sector was in crisis due to the time and again increase in electricity tariff.
He said the textile sector was the mainstay of country’s economy but it had been burdened with too many taxes.
He said in 1993 the electricity cost on producing a metre cloth was Rs 0.50 which had now risen to Rs 1.50 per metre due to frequent increase in per unit cost of the electricity besides fuel surcharge, additional surcharge and income tax.
He said apart from this, the powerloom owners had to pay Rs 360 per month as fixed electricity tax per loom and Rs 1,000 as income tax. He said Wapda had recently increased the per unit tariff of electricity by 23 paisa while another increase of 6 paisa was in the offing.
He demanded concessions for the powerloom sector, including withdrawal of general sales tax, income tax and exemption of all kinds of taxes for the units of eight powerlooms.
It was decided that the association would again organize a hunger strike camp on Oct 28 at the same venue and later on a protest procession would be led up to Ghanta Ghar Chowk.
The association leaders vowed to keep on their struggle against what they said unjust taxation and hike in power rates till the acceptance of their demands.