Addressing the joint press conference, President All Pakistan Tajir Ettehad (APTE) Muhammad Kashif Chaudhry announced All Pakistan Tajir Convention to be held on January 14 in Islamabad. Trader from all the four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan would participate in the convention.
"The government should not use traders' shoulders to whiten the black money as it would neither succeed in broadening tax net nor in increasing tax collection, rather it would discourage genuine tax payers," he added. President APTE said amnesty scheme was another way of money laundering/ smuggling/fraud through Ayan Ali or ships. According to Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar about 800 parliamentarians did not pay taxes.
The scheme was introduced to give cover to the black money of big mafia, said Chaudhry, adding the government should review its decision, hold negotiations with traders for solving their problems and brining reforms in tax system of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to increase revenue and broaden the tax net. He demanded of the government to withdraw WHT on banking transactions, adding there were too many challenges to the country, and traders did not want to create anarchy by coming into the streets.
APTE President accused traders, who are negotiating with the government, as B-team of the government and said such people had political affiliations and vested interest and had no relations with trader community. Traders successfully had given shutter down strike call thrice, against the WHT, however on the government contact, negotiations were held between the two sides. Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif presented himself as a lawyer for the trader community and raised the issue with federal government, however, he failed before the FBR and Finance Ministry officials, Chaudhry added.