Zara Shahjahan, HSY, Muse react to govt crackdown on fashion designers

KARACHI: Fashion designers have strongly reacted to Punjab Regulatory Authority’s (PRA) crackdown on the fashion industry over non-payment of taxes.

Prominent design house Hassan Shehreyar Yasin, known as HSY, is one of many concerned about PRA’s actions:

“They came to my store and were shown all the material complying to the laws and left without sealing us. HSY is open for business,” he said brushing aside all rumours of his store being shut.

“This industry and people who have built it should be supported by the government rather than being treated wrongfully like criminals. I provide a number of services and HSY is not a small brand. We are a life and style brand and therefore, are particular about our taxes,” he asserted.

Another prominent name in the fashion industry, Shirin Hasan, whose store was shut down during business hours, recalls the embarrassing incident:

“It’s very sad, definitely. Total badmashi. We gave sales tax, but not this one. This is PRA’s new tax. We told them politely, I am designing for my own brand, but they sealed the shops,” said the designer.

“I had clients coming from India. So embarrassing. Unbelievable. My flagship store located on MM Alam Road, Lahore was shut down at 1:30pm. They sent a notice, but we had told them categorically this does not come under our label. I don’t need to pay this tax because I design for myself. Eight people came to the shop and closed it down!” Shirin added.

Zara Shahjahan, another designer who suffered the same fate as Shirin said, “They came into our store on galleria and shut us down claiming that we are not paying service taxes.”

Zara says the tax doesn’t apply to her because she isn’t running a company that provides services. “It would only make sense for designers like Elan who provide design services to Sapphire. Zara Shahjahan does not provide any services to another company. Luckily we are an entirely transparent company and even though we showed them all our papers they continued to harass our people. It seems like nothing more than a witch hunt,” said the designer.

Moeed Yousaf, co-owner of  Muse, breaks down the idea behind the tax and the ‘wrongful’ seal:

“Basically here is what happened, two years ago Punjab Regulatory Authority was given a mandate to collect sales tax on revenue for selling services. Muse sells a product, we don’t sell services. We don’t charge anybody for our designing services,” Moeez explained.

“We are legally responding to the PRA through our lawyers for now. They sent us letters, but they were dated 13th August 2015 and we received them on 20th August 2015. I am sure there are others who fall under PRA, but we need don’t come under it,” he said.

So far 13 outlets have been reportedly sealed by the PRA for non-payment of taxes — Zara Shahjahan, Mini Bindra, Sania Maskatiya, Nida Azwer, Ayesha Imran, Shirin Hassan and Ammar Belal along with six others, said a spokesman for the PRA.

Twitter too was abuzz with some making serious comments while others taking a jibe at the fashion industry:

The Express Tribune