Traders have threatened to organize a countrywide protest if the government imposed new taxes to fulfill International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) demands, asking the government to reduce the pay of judges, lawmakers, and army generals instead to generate additional revenue.
Representatives of Pakistan’s Markazi Tanzeem Tajiran (Central Organization of Traders) told the media on Saturday that if additional taxes were implemented, they would start a nationwide protest on February 13.
The leaders of the organization cautioned the authorities that the economic climate of the country had made it impossible to impose additional burdens on the populace at large and the business community.
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They expressed dismay that the state of the economy of a nuclear country was in dire straits and the situation was worsening with each passing day and said that the public should not suffer because of the “flaws or crimes committed by the leaders of this country”.
“Our reaction will be severe if more taxes worth billions of rupees were imposed, as being reported in the media,” Kashif Chaudhry, the organization’s president, said, asking the stakeholders, including the ruling elites, to make “sane decisions” if they want to improve the economy.
Calling for a reduction in expenses incurred on the president, prime minister, legislators, judges, army officers and bureaucrats should be reduced, Mr. Chaudhry said the government should cut all “non-productive expenditures” immediately by half.
The traders’ representatives demanded the government formulate long-term and short-term economic policies and should ensure income tax collection from all sectors instead of imposing billions in taxes.
