Traders begin two-day countrywide shutter-down.

Byline: Imran Ali Kundi and Ashraf Javed

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE -- A two-day shutter-down strike against the controversial tax reforms by the government began on Tuesday, bringing the commercial activities to a standstill throughout the country.

Most of the markets, shopping centres and shops remained shut in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, and even in several cities of Azad Kashmir.

The business community pressed ahead with the protest strike as the talks between federal government and traders ended inconclusively after the former refused to accept the demand of latter especially withdrawing of condition of CNIC.

Traders went ahead to record their protest against the taxation policies of the government especially making mandatory for all buyers to show their Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) while making purchases over Rs50,000 from a sales tax registered person.

In Islamabad, all major markets including Super, Jinnah Super, Aabpara, Melody and small businesses remained closed. However, few shops were opened in the city.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has invited traders for meeting to resolve the issue. Talks between the two sides continued for around five hours. However, both sides failed to evolve consensus over the tax issues.

Traders informed the media that government is not withdrawing the CNIC condition due to pressure from the IMF. They said government should introduce the fixed taxation system and eliminate the process of making traders as withholding agents. They demanded that government should reduce the turnover tax to 0.25 percent from 1.25 percent and make the tax form easy.

Putting up a positive spin to the dialogue process, Hafeez Shaikh told the media that talks with traders are underway. 'Economic growth of the country is not possible without the support of traders,' said Shaikh, adding over three million traders are not paying tax, therefore, efforts are being made to bring them in tax net to divide the economic burden.

ICCI officebearers appealed to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister to give due consideration to the demands of traders that have forced them to go on strike. They said that instead of enforcing tax laws in one go, government should adopt a gradual approach to broaden the tax base. They said it was difficult for small traders to maintain accounts of their income and expenses and if they were registered in sales tax, it would enhance...