KARACHI: A division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) issued notices to Secretary (ST & FE) Procedure & Exemption, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Collector Customs (appraisement) of East&West, Port Muhammad Bin Qasim and Commissioner Inland Revenue (IR), RTO III for Dec 07 in a petition challenging two alleged illegal and un-constitutional taxes.
The petition was filed by Aziz Sons, importer, exporter and service provider. The petitioner maintains that they are the major importers of motor cycle parts on commercial scale and always pay all taxes, dues of Custom Duty, Sales Tax, Value Addition Tax etc. The customs normally releases the consignments imported by the company but in 2016, Customs held their consignment and later released the same provisionally. The matter is pending a decision and in the intervening period the authorities have refused to accept the Sales Tax returns for the month of May, June and July 2016 submitted by the petitioner company. The petitioner company was instead asked to pay 2 per cent extra Sales Tax and Extra VAT.
The petitioner impugning the advice/notice prayed to the court to declare demand and collection of 2 per cent ST as illegal. It was also prayed that ST General Order no 27 of 2014 to be unconstitutional besides declaring the Rule 58-b and 58-T in violation of Article 3,4,9,24 and 77 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
The bench after hearing initial arguments by the counsel for petitioner company issued notices to all the respondents for Dec 07.