KARACHI: Chief Justice Saqib Nisar has proposed recomposition of tax on pre-paid mobile phone cards to raise funds for the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams.
Restoration of withholding advance tax on mobile cards will generate a revenue of approximately Rs30 billion a year.
However, the chief justice said that the tax would be imposed only if the people of the country support the move and urged people to weigh in on the issue.
It may be recalled thatS upreme Court (SC) on June 11, 2018 suspended the deduction of taxes imposed on the top-up of prepaid cards by cellphone service providers and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), giving both institutions two days to act on the orders.
The court, when it was told earlier that for every cellular charge, 5.5 percent was deducted as a withholding tax, 19 percent as sales tax and another 10 percent as services charges, had described the deductions as exploitative and illegal.
During a fundraiser hosted by UK-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in London, the chief justice said overseas Pakistanis are always the first ones to help the nation during difficult times.
“It will not be appropriate to impose taxes to collect funds for the construction of dams, however, we had earlier suspended the withholding tax on the top-up of prepaid cards by network service providers and learnt that through this measure, Rs3 billion were saved per month.”
“If the nation allows, then we will re-impose the tax on the top-up of prepaid cards and collect money for the dam fund,” the top-court judge added.