Gilgit – Baltonstein’s businessmen decided to continue sitting still, and trade leader Javed Hussain – protests – protests – protests – protests – dawn.com Thursday.
GB local businessman has bones stage Protests have sat in the port since July. The protests are targeting the government’s tax policies and the port’s suspension of tariff clearance.
Yesterday, the government agreed to tax imports through ports – provided that the goods are used for local consumption and measure strict eligibility conditions. The total annual value of tax exemption is Rs 4 billion.
This was announced after talks between the federal government, GB government and local business leaders in Islamabad.
However, Hussein said the traders were not satisfied with the agreement.
“After the agreement and its announcement in Islamabad, we are advised to end the protests. But we disagree with this (recommendation) and decided to continue sitting and suspend trade,” he said.
Hussein said traders will now sit with their representative agencies and the heroes talk to the government. He added that if its members can give satisfactory reasons for yesterday’s agreement, traders will consider whether to continue protesting.
He asserted that “the limit on imported goods and the cap on payment of Rs 4 billion are contrary to our requirements.” He added that the trader’s demand is based on the country’s “legal status” and “immunities provided under the constitution”.
However, the decision made by Islamabad violates this, “We believe that through restrictions on imports, policymakers have (failed to resolve) the fundamental dispute.”
Hussein also pointed out that so far, no statutory regulatory order (SRO) has been issued and only one agreement has been completed. He added: “We are carefully reviewing the provisions of this agreement.”
He said reiterating that traders were not satisfied with the agreement, saying they could choose “Plan C”.
He added that they will also consult stakeholders and discuss the shortcomings of the agreement, and they will then consider ending the protests.
The trade chief also raised a question why “dozens of containers trapped for months” were not licensed through the SRO and other procedures were selected.
