TIMERGARA: Residents of Lower Dir have demanded the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) authorities to immediately remove the illegal general sales tax (GST) from bills as they argued that Malakand division is a tax-free zone. Zahir Shah Khan, a resident of Kandaro Bala, said that he paid Rs1717 GST in his total bill of Rs11820 for the month of February. Salahuddin, from Manjae area, said that he had submitted several bills with GST. Badshah Khisro, a resident of Balambat, said that he could hardly manage to pay the original bill, let alone the extra GST included in the bill. When contacted, Distribution Officer (DO) SNGPL Lower Dir Mahmoodur Rahman said that the regional office had been shifted to Mardan and the officials there told him that only 900 out of 1800 consumers’ bills he submitted would be rectified at the moment because of a problem with Mardan office IT section. He informed that the Mardan office would send these bills to Peshawar office for rectification. He added that bills of the remaining consumers would be corrected later. Malik Ali Bakht, naib nazim Malakabad neighborhood council , and local PTI leader Malik Rahatullah also demanded the concerned quarters to immediately remove GST from SNGPL bills otherwise would take to the streets.