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Pakistan:
Shops shut down to avoid tax survey |
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May 28, 2000 ISLAMABAD, MAY 27 (AP) - Many businesses in Pakistan shut down Saturday to protest attempts by the army-led government to document their businesses, their inventories and get them to pay taxes. Tax officials began a nationwide survey aimed at documenting the country's commercial and private wealth, which eventually will show who should be paying taxes and how much. Tax collection is a difficult job in Pakistan, where few people pay taxes. In a country of 140 million people, barely 1.2 million pay taxes. Army Chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf called that figure "shameful." But businesses accustomed to cash transactions are resisting the government's efforts to document their businesses.
Last week they shut the country down for three days with strikes in most major cities.
On Saturday they began an indefinite strike. But the response has been mixed. In the federal capital it was a partial closure and in the eastern city of Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's most populous Punjab province, the bigger plazas closed down.
"We will go on strike indefinitely until the government relents," said Maqsood Butt, president of the Lahore Traders Association. Musharraf earlier said the government won't be swayed by strikes and protests. Some smaller storeowners in Lahore said they were ready to pay taxes. "There is no need to go on strike. We are ready to pay our taxes, if they are fair," said Khawaja Azhar Gulshen.
In Pakistan where corruption has become endemic, tax collection officials have a reputation of taking bribes, imposing arbitrary taxes on those who don't pay. In a sweep of the corrupt from its tax collection department, the government on Friday dismissed 1,000 employees, according to the state-run news agency, The Associated Press of Pakistan. As well as the documentation, businessmen are resisting a government decision to impose a general sales tax, which will go into effect on July 1. One of the reasons for the survey is to curb smuggling in Pakistan. In the Northwest Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, smuggled goods are in the majority. In Peshawar, the provincial capital, businesses were closed or shut down when a tax officer approached to try to conduct the survey. There were no reports of violence, but soldiers were patrolling most streets in the 13 major cities where the survey was being conducted. Soldiers
were also accompanying tax officers to those businesses that
were still open. |