“Pakistan’s small business owners can’t pay their bills.”
Islamabad (LTN NEWS): Monday, traders all over the country said they would not pay their new electricity bills because sales tax was being added to them.
Markazi Tanzeem Tajiran Pakistan (MTTP) President Muhammad Kashif Chaudhary and others told the media that taxes had been added to electricity bills ranging from Rs3,000 to 20,000. These taxes were added to commercial bills even though closed shops and zero-meter readings were not taken into account.
He said that traders already paid taxes like the advance tax, the fuel price adjustment, and other taxes.
Chaudhry also said that if the tax on electricity bills wasn’t taken away, traders from Karachi to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would go on a “shut down” strike on August 17. If their demands weren’t met, the strike would last longer.
He also said that the price of electricity should have been lower, but taxes go up when the price of electricity goes up.
Pakistan’s small business owners don’t have enough money to pay their bills. We asked the government over and over to get rid of this tax, but the finance minister never talked to our representative before putting this tax in place.
Kashif said that traders all over Pakistan were currently protesting in the streets because of what the government was doing with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rules.
