APTPMA announces shutter-down strike against new taxes
Cement dealers and distributors have stopped picking up cement sacks from the factories.
FAISALABAD (Dunya News) – The traders of All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA) in Faisalabad have been observing complete shutter down strike against imposition of new taxes under a revised formula in the fiscal budget 2019-20 by the government.
Moreover, sugar dealers have refused to buy sugar from the sugar mills from today in protest against new method of imposition of new taxes on them.
Furthermore, cement dealers and distributors have followed the same path by not picking up cement sacks from the factories.
The sugar and cement dealers’ associations have demanded the government to withdraw from its decision that the wholesale dealers would only be allowed to purchase the goods on their identity cards.
The APTPMA and other traders have halted their works from today. The shut down of the textile processing mills means the textile industry has come to a standstill.
Sources familiar with the matter told the media that if the deadlock between the traders and the government is not broken, the situation may turn into a crisis, and resultantly there would be severe shortage of sugar and cement in the market.
APTPMA secretary Muhammad Ashraf said that following the imposition of new sales taxes, parties have stopped orders of the textile processing.
Non-registered have to pay 20 percent tax and must reveal their identity cards before purchasing the goods, whereas thousands of local buyers are still unregistered and even they do not want to get themselves registered.
He said that the government was requested multiple times to undo the requirement of identity cards for the dealers, but to no avail.
Ashraf stated that thousands of employees will lose their jobs following the closure of the textile processing mills and urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to review the decision of changes in sales taxes.
