Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Punjab expresses its total solidarity with traders and supports their demand regarding the immediate withdrawal of withholding tax, said PPP Punjab President Manzoor Wattoo in a statement issued on Sunday.
He said that the government had already destroyed the agriculture sector and now they were after the small traders, adding that the unilateral imposition of withholding tax in bank transactions was the physical manifestation of their malevolent intentions.
He added that the PPP would not leave the traders at the mercy of the rulers and would struggle shoulder-to-shoulder with them till the withdrawal of the cruel and unjust withholding tax.
He regretted that the missing of targets in GDP, exports, agriculture including of the industrial sectors during the last financial year had not pushed the government to change its policies. Instead, its policies are jamming the wheel of the economy, he observed.
He said that the government was boasting the level of foreign exchange reserves as indicator of the improvement in the economy. They raised the foreign exchange reserves through resorting to heavy borrowing and the bubble would bust sooner than later because the nation had to pay it back with higher interest rates, he added.
He urged the government not to push the traders against the wall and instead levy taxes on big businessmen who could pay.
Ironically, the government’s generosity towards the big industrialists through exemption in custom duties is unforgiving and should be done away with to give impetus to the revenue generation efforts of the FBR.
