Islamabad: Chamber of Small Traders on Wednesday called the recent hike in petroleum prices ‘a petrol bomb’ which is to damage the economy and hurt
the poor.
The government must take back the fresh hike in petroleum prices, otherwise
protests would be launched against it, said Patron Islamabad Chamber of
Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Butt.
Increase in the prices of petroleum prices is a confession by the
government that it has little options to raise revenue through taxing the
elite and burdening poor is the most convenient way for it, he added.
He said that government should have introduced tax reforms, targeted the
untaxed rural elite, controlled gas and electricity theft and cracked down
on money laundering to generate funds while avoiding inflation.
The political parties representing opposition should take serious note of
this matter of great national and public importance as prices are
frequently been revised upward since last six months.
The federal government had failed to improve tax administration, plug holes
and give relief to the masses which amounts to enmity with masses, he noted.