Utility tax: Collection of cess from CNG stations stopped

LHC has stopped the government from collecting GIDC from CNG stations.

MULTAN:

The Multan Bench of the Lahore High Court has stopped the government from collecting Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) from CNG stations. The collection was to start from October 28.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered the government to return Rs84 billion collected as GIDC to the CNG companies. Nearly 100 CNG stations had filed petitions in the Lahore High Court.

The LHC restrained the SNGPL and the government from collecting and demanding pending GIDC taxes from companies who had paid the tax under the Gas Infrastructure Development Ordinance 2014, enacted by the president of Pakistan. A copy of the order was sent to the attorney general and he was asked to submit a reply on why ordinance had not been struck down. Muhammad Ali Siddiqi, counsel for 80 CNG station owners said the tax was declared illegal by the Peshawar High Court and later the Islamabad High Court.  He said on June 13, 2013 the Supreme Court declared the collection of cess illegal. He said the government should return the tax collected.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2014.