None of your business: Lawyer challenges tax on chambers

An Additional Advocate General for Sindh defended the commercial tax imposed by the Excise and Taxation department.

KARACHI:

A lawyer has gone to court to challenge a commercial tax on the chambers of lawyers.

On Tuesday, a division bench of High Court of Sindh, comprising Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh heard Ghulam Mustafa Lakhani advocate’s petition. The bench ordered him to place the lease documents on the record.

An Additional Advocate General (AAG) for Sindh defended the commercial tax imposed by the Excise and Taxation department and brought up the issue of the nature of land. If it is a commercial place then a commercial tax is justified, the AAG submitted. He said that according to the definition of advocacy and professional activity, a lawyer’s practice is a commercial activity. This is why a commercial tax comes under the Sindh Urban Immoveable Property Ordinance.

Earlier on, Mustafa Lakhani, a senior lawyer and member of the Sindh Bar Council, argued that he never used his office at No. 106 Uni Tower for commercial purposes. The petition was later adjourned to an unspecified date.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2011.