Industries' owners in Pakistan's KP province announce civil disobedience move against high taxes on electricity

Industries' owners in the Nowshera district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province announced civil disobedience move on Tuesday and closed down their units in protest against the imposition of high taxes in electricity bills.

They said that the government had levied various taxes on power consumption, which had forced the owners of the marble industry to close down their units.

The industrialists said that a total of 4,000 marble units across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 200 in Nowshera district In KP province had been shut owing to heavy taxes on electricity. They said the government and power supply company had imposed Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA), quarter tariff tax, extra tax and general sales tax, which forced the owners to shut their units.

They said that owners and labourers of marble units staged peaceful protest but still the government registered cases against them to intimidate the law-abiding citizens. They asked the government to resolve their issues or else they would block the Grand Trunk Road and Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway against disconnection of electricity to industrial units in the district.

They also threatened to stage protest sit-ins against the government at D-Chowk Islamabad if their demands were not met forthwith. It may be mentioned here that people have received highly inflated bills for the months of November and December after huge charges under the head of FPA were added to the original electricity consumed by the people, according to News International.

In most cases, the FPA is 200 times greater than the original bills. Power consumers in various parts of the KP had then staged protests against the inflated electricity bills sent to them by Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco) after the inclusion of FPA.

The angry consumers were seen visiting the Pesco different sub-division carrying inflated power bills in their hands. They were heard cursing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and the power distribution company for putting the additional financial burden on them by levying high FPA tax on them, as noted by News International.

( With inputs from ANI )

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