OGRA’s counsel informed the court that the authority had identified at least 349 CNG stations located adjacent to either schools, mosques or hospitals. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was hearing a suo motu case against raising taxes on petroleum products. The court has also clubbed a 2005 petition by PML-N leader Iqbal Zafar Jhagra with the case.
“The attorney general has to place, on record, a comparative study of taxes levied by the Finance Act, 2013 to ascertain whether petroleum and CNG consumers have been treated equally as other tax-payers,” the bench noted. “The attorney general should also inform the court about GST collection as it was directed in the order dated June 21, 2013,” it added.
The June 21 order pertained to the extra 1% GST levied by the federal government without the passage of the Finance Bill 2013, or budget, by parliament.
The bench asked Attorney General Muneer A Malik to apprise the court of the additional 9% GST levied on CNG and asked him why the public should pay sales tax on CNG products over and above the existing 17% tax.
There should be some rationale behind the implementation of taxes, the bench maintained.
“The executive has to generate revenue by levying taxes. However, being a democratic government, under the Constitution, taxes have to be levied rationally, bearing in mind the fact that citizens are already suffering from so many miseries,” the short order stated.
“Therefore, the government is equally responsible to extend all possible facilities to its citizens to ensure enforcement of their fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 9, 14 and 24 of the Constitution.”
The case will again be taken up July 24.
CNG licences case
In a separate case, the Supreme Court ordered the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to submit the complete record of genuine licences issued to CNG stations and ordered the Federal Board of Revenue to (FBR) to cooperate with OGRA for this purpose.
Federal Investigating Agency’s Additional Director Legal Muhammad Azam Khan told the court that during a recent visit to different CNG stations from Lahore to Gujranwala, he learnt that there were 16 stations within a radius of 8.5 kilometres while the distance between two stations in a city should be three to five kilometres.
OGRA’s counsel Advocate Iftikhar Gillani informed the court that the authority had identified at least 349 CNG stations located adjacent to either schools, mosques or hospitals. OGRA has already issued notices to such CNG stations, he added.
Not convinced with OGRA’s performance, the court observed that such stations should be closed as soon as possible.
The court said OGRA was unwilling to act against those involved in gas theft. However, OGRA Chairman Saeed Ahmed Khan said that his authority had nothing to do with gas theft.
The court will take up the case again on July 11.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2013.
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The SC has found out the govt's ambigous method of imposing non-reasonable taxes in a disguise and want clarification to apply the judgment. Hon SC Judge C. Iftekhar has turned the table around. If more judges in future follow his precident a true honest public service democracy will emerge in Pakistan. Judges of many countries from U.S. to India are following our CJ and have started taking charge of their powers by challenging their govt's public policies along with it's leaders' action that are not serving the people but compromising their rights, safety and livelyhood.
The government can impose taxes (legally) to collect revenue but the SC has an issue with it being called the "sales tax". Suggest the government should call it "Tax For No Reason". The matter is becoming absurd.