LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Intensif­ying their movement against the mandatory requirement of providing CNIC for sale and purchase of goods, traders’ associations from across the country have announced a four-day shutter down after Eidul Azha.

“We have been left with no option but to observe countrywide shutter down strikes in two phases in August. In first phase, we will keep our businesses (shops) closed on August 15-16, followed by two strikes from August 26-27. And finally, we will start closing our businesses permanently starting from Muharram 11 after Ashura holidays in September,” All Pakistan Markazi Anjuman-e-Tijaran (APAT) Central General Secretary Naeem Mir told Dawn on Wednesday.

Criticising the government, APAT’s Mir held the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) responsible for bringing the traders at a point of no return due to its strict and unjustified stance regarding imposition of new tax regime amid production of CNICs in any transaction of Rs50,000 or above.

“We have decided to neither give our CNICs nor of our customers on any sale/purchase deal (Rs50,000 and above),” he said.

“The system to classify imposition of tax with certain ration[ale] on filers and non-filers is already in place and both filers and non-filers are paying tax on various jobs [including] withholding tax on bank transfer, vehicle registration tax etc. So why the government considers non-filers thieves despite receiving tax from them,” he questioned.

On the other hand, traders in Faisalabad also said they would not provide CNIC to government on sale and purchase dealings and will go on strike in August against government policies.

They said the traders are facing problems due to bad business conditions and government is not ready to assess the situation and forcing for fixed tax adding that they had observed shutter-down strikes against the government’s decisions but they had all been in vain.

In Islamabad, APAT’s President Ajmal Baloch in a separate press briefing also said “the situation has created an economic crisis in the country and the government was not taking it seriously ... The International Monetary Fund had asked for the documentation of the economy but the bureaucracy has made the small traders scapegoat to divert the attention.”

APAT’s Baloch said sales have dropped by around 38 per cent due to declining purchasing power of ordinary citizens.

“At the same time, complicated documentation procedures have already opened new avenues of income for the FBR officials,” he claimed.

He said the documentation measures have increased corruption and criticised politicians’ double-talk saying that “all parties have sympathies with us and come to our support when in opposition, but when in the government, they term the traders as tax thieves, violators and renegade elements,” Ajmal Baloch said.

In Karachi, various trade bodies held a meeting to muster support for the country-wide shutter down strike called by Anjuman-e-Tajiran.

Chairman All Karachi Tajir Itehad Atiq Mir said the meeting was called to bring all trade bodies at one platform as some groups were against the country-wide shutter down.

“We will try to meet those trade bodies tomorrow who are not in favour of strike and try to convince them in getting their support for the shutter down,” he added.

He said the decision on joining the strike call would be announced at a press conference in the current week.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2019