Traders in Gilgit-Baltistan have decided to continue their sit-in despite the government agreeing to conditionally exempt imports routed through the Sost Dry Port from key federal taxes, trade leader Javed Hussain \u2014 who has been leading the protest. Local traders in GB have been staging a protest sit-in, blocking the port since July. The protest was launched against the government\u2019s taxation policies and suspension of customs clearance at the port. Yesterday, the government agreed to tax exemptions on imports coming through the port \u2014 provided that the goods were for local consumption and meet strict eligibility conditions. The total annual value of tax exemptions was capped at Rs4 billion. This was announced after talks between the federal government, GB government and local business leaders in Islamabad. But, Hussain said traders were not satisfied with this agreement. \u201cAfter the agreement and its announcement in Islamabad, it was suggested to us to end the protest. But we don\u2019t agree with this [suggestion] and have decided to continue the sit-in and keep the trade suspended,\u201d he said. Hussain said traders would now have a sitting with its representative body that held talks with the government. If its members were able to give a satisfactory justification regarding yesterday\u2019s agreement, traders would deliberate on whether to continue the protest, he added. \u201cSetting a limit on imports and placing a cap of Rs4bn goes against our demands,\u201d he asserted, adding that traders\u2019 demands were based on GB\u2019s \u201clegal status\u201d in the country and the \u201cexemption it was provided under the Constitution\u201d. But the decision made in Islamabad is contrary to this, and \u201cwe are of the view that by setting a limit on imports, decision-makers have [failed to resolve] the fundamental dispute\u201d, he said. Hussain also pointed out that a statutory regulatory order (SRO) had not been issued so far and only an agreement was finalised. \u201cWe are carefully reviewing the provisions of this agreement,\u201d he added. Reiterating the traders were not satisfied with the agreement, he said they could go for a \u201cPlan C\u201d. He added that they would also consult the stakeholders and discuss the shortcomings of the agreement, after which they would consider ending the protest. The trade leader also raised the questioned that why \u201cdozens of containers that were stuck for several months\u201d were not being given clearance through an SRO and other procedures were being opted for, for this purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Traders in Gilgit-Baltistan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3617,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gilgit-baltistan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}