KARACHI: A constitutional bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry and Justice Muhammad Hasan (Akber) has allowed a constitutional petition filed by Messer’s MD Industries Private Limited while restraining the respondents from any coercive action against petitioner until its appeal is pending before the tribunal is decided.
The bench earlier heard Ahmed Ali Hussain advocate assisted by Kuldeep Kumar Advocate who said that petitioner is aggrieved of the condition imposed by Customs Appellate Tribunal for granting stay against recovery, subject to furnishing security of 25 per cent of the total amount of tax in terms of section 194(A)(5) of the Customs Act 1969. The counsel for petitioner maintained that out of alleged tax liability of Rupees 333.81 million, petitioner has voluntarily paid rupees 30.47 million and furnished cheques for rupees 183.67 million. He said that cheques were encashed by the department even before Order in Original (ONO) as evident from the annexed challans, yet those payments were not taken into account in the penultimate para of the ONO.
It was further submitted that petitioner has already paid more than 25 per cent of the principal amount of tax adjudicated by the Collector, Adjudication which fact was also overlooked by the Tribunal in requiring a further security of 25 per cent.
Khalid Mehmood Rajpar counsel for Post Clearance Audit (South) not disputed these facts.
The bench taking notice of the fact that the tribunal has reserved judgment on Petitioner’s appeal, allowed the petition by observing that the Petitioner has fulfilled the requirement of security in terms of section 194(A)(5). The bench also restrained the respondent department from any coercive action against the petitioner until its appeal pending before the Tribunal is decided.