Pakistan

SC suspends service charge tax on mobile services

Hearing of case adjourned for an indefinite period

Hasnaat Mailk October 16, 2018

Federal government, provincial governments of Punjab and Balochistan sought more time from the court on the matter. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday suspended the service charge tax collected by cell phone companies on post-paid mobile services.

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar presided over the hearing pertaining to additional taxes charged by mobile phone companies.

Top court suspends 'exorbitant' tax on prepaid mobile bills

"Punjab is incurring a loss of Rs2 billion the due to cancellation of service charges," Advocate General Punjab Shan Gul informed the court during the proceedings, to which the CJP responded that "if you are wrongly collecting taxes, then it's not a loss."

"If a person loads a 100 rupee card, then why should the province receive a share from it," the top judge remarked, and questioned the provincial representative regarding the service being provided by the province in such a scenario.

The federal government and the provincial governments of Punjab and Balochistan have sought more time from the court regarding the matter.

The court also ordered to continue the provision of relief to customers and adjourned the hearing of the case for an indefinite period.

In June, the supreme court suspended ‘exorbitant tax deductions’ on prepaid mobile cards.

COMMENTS (2)

Haroon | 6 years ago | Reply @Munaf: Charges, surcharges, cesses, levies, taxes, sales tax, provincial tax, federal taxes All learned from the utility bills. Take whatever, when you apply for Net Metering which is non-sense sort of reccomending for an IPP licensing authority, and then the utility purchases your investment, license, and hardware, labour, licensing, etc., etc. they give you a return which is almost a laughing stock. There is no guideline neither with the utility which is KE, nor the regulatory authority, which are waiting to have the icing of the cake. But the icing never comes, as the cakes gets stale, and thrown. How many satisified users of the Net metering, in Pakistan. Nepra please help

Munaf | 6 years ago | Reply when he will take notice of Surcharge and Additional Surcharge on electricity bills?

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