SC orders GEO News to pay penalties

Geo News has not paid a single penny for the Diamer-Bhasha dam fund, laments CJP

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered "Geo News” to pay penalties for not submitting receipts of tax payments to the court.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, was hearing a case pertaining to sales tax evasion against "Geo News” in Islamabad.

"I do not care about anyone else except the state," remarked Justice Nisar. "Geo's propaganda against me will make no difference."

During the hearing, Geo's counsel Khalid Latif informed the court that all taxes have been paid. "According to Geo, taxes were not applicable but I believe that stance was wrong," he said. "Taxes did apply to Geo News."



Latif added, "Taxes exceeding Rs78 million between January to September 2007 were payable by Geo News whereas taxes exceeding Rs126.4 million were outstanding for the period between July 2004 till June 2006."

The counsel for Geo News also contended before the court that Geo News has paid all the taxes and the only issue remaining pertains to the penalty for not paying taxes.

Upon hearing this, the chief justice questioned how the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) amnesty scheme could apply to provincial taxes. He also said no one was allowed to simultaneously benefit from two schemes. "The amnesty scheme was available when the case against Jung Group was being heard."

The CJP lamented that "Geo News has not paid a single penny for the Diamer-Bhasha dam fund" and he does not care “how many programmes Shahzaib does” against him.

In response, the counsel for Geo group said the construction of dam is a national issue. To this, the CJP remarked, "Did Geo group hold a marathon transmission for dam funds? Geo has not taken lead over the dam issue even though it is the biggest of all channels.”