KARACHI: The traders have protested against the government’s decision of imposing 0.6pc withholding tax on bank transaction of Rs50,000.
The protesters warned of spreading demonstrations across the country, if the government will not take back the decision. Scores of businessmen on the call of Sindh Tajir Ittehad (STI) and the All Karachi Tajir Ittehad vent their anger in front of the Karachi Press Club. They carried banners and placards, and shouted slogans against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, former president Asif Ali Zardari and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
The government’s decision also angered the traders’ community in Sukkur and other parts of upper Sindh. Traders’ organisations in Sukkur staged a protest rally from Tajir Secretariat in Sarafa Bazaar to Minara Road. Shouting slogans against the government, they termed the tax an ‘anti-trader policy’.
Demanding immediate withdrawal of the tax, Sukkur Small Traders President Jawed Memon warned of a complete shutter-down protest.
Meanwhile, while talking to the media at the Multan Press Club, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf national organiser Shah Mehmood Qureshi said his party would stand shoulder to shoulder with the traders’ community. “The tax would have an extremely adverse impact on the national economy.”
