ISLAMABAD - The main body of traders in the country has called for extending the deadline for the tax-amnesty scheme to June 30, so that more and more traders could avail it.
“We want at least 1 million traders to benefit from the scheme In 16 days, even a thousand cannot be registered,” said All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran (APAT) President Ajmal Baloch on Saturday.
He said the current deadline set for the scheme was February 29, while the problem was the scheme, itself, came into effect on February 1.
In a press statement, Baloch conveyed the traders’ complaint that the deadline was too short, keeping in view that the scheme was finalised after four months of negotiations, and later approved by the Parliament also after four months.
“The traders could not even launch an awareness campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to the murder of a provincial trade leader,” Baloch said, emphasising, “The scheme is the only way to bring traders into the tax net and increase tax collections.”
He concluded by saying that if the deadline was extended till June 30, the Anjuman would launch a nationwide awareness drive to bring home to the traders the benefits of the scheme.