Withholding tax: KP flour dealers and millers go on strike

PESHAWAR: Flour dealers and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Flour Mills Association members on Thursday went on a shutdown strike against withholding tax and the ban on the commodity movement from Punjab to the province.

Flour dealers body patron-in-chief Waheed Khan and Flour Mills Association KP President Asim Raza had given the strike call.

Taimoor Khan, the flour dealers body, press secretary, said the flour dealers and mills association demanded the government to address the issues of the business community instead of creating more problems for the businesses.

He said the strike would continue till acceptance of their demands which included withdrawal of the withholding tax on flour.“The flour dealers will never accept to be the agent of the Federal Bureau of Revenue,” he added.

He said the ban on the movement of flour to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Punjab should be lifted as well.Taimoor Khan said that they had given the strike call but the government did not pay any heed to their demands and added that now they would end the strike only when the government accepted their demands.

Earlier, flour dealers had staged protests against the withholding tax. Waheed Khan had said that the tax would directly impact the general public. He had said that the tax collection through dealers would make them agents of the FBR which was not acceptable to them.