Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Religious Affairs to gather details about Hajj tour operators who had defaulted on taxes from the Income Tax Department, State Bank of Pakistan and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.
The judge directed the ministry to submit the details to the court along with an action plan stating how the ministry would cancel the quotas awarded to the defaulters and give them instead to new operators. The court was hearing a contempt petition filed by private tour operators who accused the ministry of ignoring previous court orders to award quotas on merit, and to include new operators in the process and not just previously registered companies.
Federal Board of Revenue Secretary Basit Ali Shah and Income Tax Department legal adviser Ilyas Khan appeared before the court on Wednesday. Khan told the court that he had gathered information about 160 companies out of the 729 which had submitted income tax returns. He said that taxes of Rs70.2 million had been collected from these companies. He said details about the other companies were being gathered and would be provided at a later stage. At this, the chief justice adjourned the hearing till July 18.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2012.
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