Traders cannot afford more taxes than their business scale, he said, adding that the deadlock with the FBR pulled down sales to 10 percent since Ashura. "The identity card submission condition continues to weaken traders financially with each passing day as none is ready to help them come out of the crisis by ending the identity card condition," he said, adding that the trades are ready to accept all tax related conditions of the government except the identify card one.
"Actually government is firm to bring the small traders into tax documentation," he said, but resisted the move for being monetarily too hefty to afford.
It is feared the taxation may multiply taxes on the small traders on just surpassing the benchmark amount for example over Rs 50,000. There are, he said, other factors including the distrust of traders over the government's sincerity also come to play a role in deadlock with FBR over the identity card condition on selling and purchasing goods.
"We pay taxes on purchase of goods at the factory level then there is no need to document further details of the traders," Paracha added.
"We are ready to stage a stationary two-day protest on Oct 9 and 10, in front of the FBR office in Islamabad," he said, adding that the decision has been taken after back to back talks failure.
He said that the government has informed the traders during meetings that they had already signed agreement with the IMF on implementing the identity card condition on small traders, which brought about a serious discontent among the businessmen community. However he said that the traders will continue to resist the condition at any cost.
"This imposition is not acceptable however we are open for others," chairman STI said, adding that their standoff with the government has no political support and nor they are part of the JUI-F sit-in protest in the capital city.