KARACHI: Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar of High Court of Sindh (SHC) on Monday adjourned hearing of a suit filed by Engro Elengy Limited against levy of Sales Tax, Income tax etc till Feb 19. The bench took up the case at about 1 p.m. During the hearing, court was informed that Commissioner, Regional Tax Office (RTO) and other defendants have not responded to the notices.
Sohail Muzaffar advocate, counsel for Pakistan Customs and Masooda Siraj for Custom valuation requested the court to issue notices to the defendant no 6 and 7 again.
Barrister Makhdoom Ali Khan, counsel for plaintiff informed the bench that issue of ex-parte proceedings against the defendants 6 and 7 is already fixed before Registrar concerned on Feb 16. After this statement, the bench said that it will proceed with the case on Feb 19.
The plaintiff moved the court against a demand of rupees 2880 million raised by Pakistan Customs as Customs Duty and Sales Tax on Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU). The plaintiff cited federal secretary Revenue, Chairman FBR, Collector of Customs (Model Customs Collectorate) Port Muhammad Bin Qasim, DC (PMBQ), Principal Appraiser, Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue Zone III as defendants. The suit was filed through Vijay Kumar, Finance Manager of the Plaintiff and maintains that they are a subsidiary of Engro Corporation Limited and are engaged in the handling, re-gasification, storage and processing of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and are duly licensed by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). The plaintiff explaining the importance of their company maintains that Pakistan is facing a shortage of 2 billion million cubic feet (MCF) of gas per day which is to increase up to 10 billion (MCF) in next 15 years. The increasing demand and depleting reserves of natural gas are the reason due to which Government of Pakistan decided to allow import of LNG. And for coordination formed an entity known as Inter State Gas System (ISGS). The plaintiff maintained that in order to meet the gap between the demand and supply, government allowed a number of concessions including exemption from duties and taxes. The plaintiff sought benefit of exemption under SRO 678 on import of (FSRU) which amounts to rupees 2880 million as per assessment by the defendants.
The Customs department was represented by Additional Collector Port Muhammad Bin Qasim Nayyer Shafiq, Principal Appraiser Tariq Aziz and Liaquat Hussain, Asad Aleem (Law Officer).