Traders from All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA) have announced a strike in four major cities in Pakistan. 600 textile-processing units in these cities will remain closed in protest against the recently introduced 17 percent sales tax on five zero-rated sectors.
The APTPMA has halted their work from today. The shutdown of the textile processing mills, if not resolved, can become a crisis. “We finally closed our all member textile processing units situated in Faisalabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Gujranwala. Our 600 mills include 240 in Faisalabad and around 225 in Karachi,” said the APTPMA Chairman, Habib Gujjar.
The All Pakistan Textile Sizing Association (APTSA) has also joined the processing mills and announced to shut down its 100 mills in Jhang, Faisalabad Toba Tek Singh, and Hafizabad.
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APTSA’s main demand is to bring the whole retail sector into the tax net. The retail sector is not ready to purchase on the condition of the CNIC provision. The APTPMA chairman said that the industry members just want to be taken on board when the government takes important decisions.
Sugar producers along with the cement makers and distributors have also registered their protest by refusing to pick up the goods from the factories. They want the government to withdraw its decision that the wholesale dealers are required to purchase the goods on their identity cards.
Under the new rules, it is mandatory for the non-registered to pay 20 percent tax and disclose their identity cards before purchasing the goods. The problem is thousands of the local buyers are still unregistered and are unwilling to get themselves registered.