Tax Recovery: LHC quashes FBR notices sent to sugar mills

LAHORE: Lahore High Court on Tuesday quashed Rs407 million sales tax notices issued to Ittefaq Sugar Mills and Kashmir Sugar Mills and told the Inland Revenue Tribunal of Federal Board of Revenue to decide the case again.

Mills’ owner, Tariq Shafi, said the FBR had sent them sales tax recovery notices for maintaining sugar stocks in 2011.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that the FBR had issued the tax recovery notices without proper assessment and any prior notice to the mills’ management. “The notices were challenged before the Inland Revenue Tribunal that suspended the tax recovery, but directed the mills to deposit 30 per cent amount of the assessed tax with the government. The decision of the tribunal is beyond its jurisdiction,” he said.

Justice Shahid Karim directed the tribunal to decide the matter in two months. He also restrained the FBR from taking coercive measure against the petitioner during that period.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2016.