Protesters defiant as Jordanians strike over tax bill
AMMAN: Doctors, lawyers and teachers staged a strike across Jordan on Wednesday in protest over IMF- backed austerity measures including a proposed income tax law that have sparked a week of angry demonstrations.
Lawyers in black robes were among more than 1,000 protesters who gathered outside the headquarters of the country’s trade union federation in the capital Amman to demand the government drop the reforms.
Some demonstrators waved Jordanian flags or carried placards reading “I’m afraid for my future” while others held up loaves of flatbread with “corruption = hunger” written on them.
Later, some 2,000 demonstrators gathered in the capital for a fresh protest.
Scuff les took place between police forces, mobilised in large numbers, and demonstrators who tried to repel them, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.
The official Petra news agency said a policeman was stabbed and is in critical condition.
After a week of rallies against reforms backed by the International Monetary Fund ( IMF), there were few signs that public anger was abating, despite Prime Minister Hani Mulki stepping down and King Abdullah II calling for a full review of the proposed tax law.
If passed, the bill would raise taxes on employees by at least five per cent and on companies by between 20 and 40 per cent.
A majority of deputies have said they will vote against it, but protesters have staged repeated night-time demonstrations after breaking the Ramadan fast to demand the bill be withdrawn altogether.
Tarek, a 45-year- old lawyer, said the law would imperil “what remains of the middle class”.
“This bill is a disaster,” he said.
Ali al-Abous, head of Jordan’s doctors’ union and trade union federation, told AFP that the strike aimed “to send a message to the new government (to) drop the income tax draft law and hold a national dialogue on it.”
Addressing a crowd , Abous said unions had “decided to give the government a chance to hold a national dialogue” on the law, but booing protesters prevented him from finishing his speech.
“That’s unacceptable; we shouldn’t talk to the government until the bill is withdrawn,” said Saad, 27, a pharmacy student, prompting shouts of agreement.
Other protesters accused the unions of selling out their cause.
For his part, Jordan’s newly named Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz tweeted to pledge “dialogue with the different parties and to work with them” towards “a tax system that is fair to everybody”.
The tax bill, yet to be approved by parliament, was the latest in a series of austerity measures since Amman secured a US$ 723million loan from the IMF in 2016. — AFP