MULTAN The City

Dengue larva found in Multan on dengue prevention day
From Our Correspondent
MULTAN: The Health Department officials detected dengue larva at five places in the city on the dengue prevention day on Thursday.
Dengue programme official Dr Attaur Rehman said that dengue larva had been found in City Classic Plaza in the cantonment area and four sites in Bosan Town.
After the detection of dengue larva in the cantonment, the Multan station commander and his team along with the dengue programme officials carried out fumigation. Meanwhile, all the departments observed dengue prevention day on the directions of the Punjab government. The government employees led by DCO Zahid Salim Gondal took out a rally from Raza Hall up to Chowk Kutchery. They were carrying banners and placards. Addressing the rally, the DCO said that the special dengue wards had been set up in all hospitals. He said that no dengue case had been detected in Multan. He said that the special squads had been constituted, which were surveying the city round-the-clock and removing dengue larva. The Agriculture Department also arranged an anti-dengue walk.

Ginners to participate in traders’ shutdown strike tomorrow
From Our Correspondent
MULTAN: The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association will join the traders’ shutdown call for tomorrow (August 1) against 0.3 per cent withholding tax.
Talking to newsmen here on Thursday, PCGA chairman Haji Hafeez Anwar and vice-chairman Rao Sadaruddin said that refunds were pending for the last four years and firstly the government should reimburse the refunds and then think about levying the ‘unjustified’ withholding tax. They said that the non-reimbursement of refunds would destroy the business activities. No facilities were being provided to the business community across the country while the businessmen were being overburdened with unjustified taxes, they added. They said that the ginner community had rejected the withholding tax. The PCGA office-bearers said that the association had rejected all unjustified taxes imposed in the budget 2015/16. They said that the ginners made transactions of hundreds of millions rupees during the cotton season; therefore, they could not pay 0.3 per cent withholding tax on each bank transaction.
Meanwhile, Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Mian Iqbal, in a press release, urged the government to repeal 0.3 per cent withholding tax and resolve the matter amicably. He said that the withholding tax would encourage the people to do their transactions in cash to avoid taxes. It would also hamper the government efforts to expand the tax net, he added.
The MCCI president said that the government had levied the tax simultaneously on filers and non-filers. He said that the banks were deducting the tax from filers and non-filers alike with suggestion that the filers could claim it later and everybody knew how difficult it was to claim refunds.
He said that the government should understand that the protests and strikes always hit the economic activities hard; therefore, the tax should be withdrawn immediately in the larger interest of the economy. He said that the government should take all trade and industry related decisions in consultation with the business community.
The MCCI president said that the withholding tax would affect the banking sector as the traders would avoid doing transactions through the banks, causing loss of revenue to the national exchequer which was collected on banking services. He said that no one was against paying taxes or expansion of tax net but the taxes should be levied in a rational manner.