New tax on Pakistani poultry shops

The tax is the first of its kind. Arif Bhatti of the ruling political party said, “It will bring in over 12,000 EUR for the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) every year, so there really should be no objections to it, because it is increasing the government’s revenue. Moreover, there are 1,500 poultry shops set up illegally in the city-this tax will help legalize all of them.

However, Saeed Ghani, of the opposition brought up the issues of inflation to counter the tax suggestion. “This tax will give shopkeepers another excuse to increase poultry prices-as it is. The 12,000 EUR that the CDGK will get from the tax is peanuts, compared to the size of our budget-it is not worth it.”

“Poultry prices are affected by demand and supply, and not taxes,” Asif Bhatti of the ruling party said. “Right now, production far exceeds demands-prices of chicken have come down drastically.”

Conceding that the tax was a tad unfair in that it was not incremental, and did not take the size of the business into account, Bhatti said, “We need to divide shops into categories, and levy a tax that is more representative of the amount of business that the outlet does.”