New directives: PHC suspends interim order on gas cess collection

Lifts stay following Supreme Court’s ruling on petition.

PESHAWAR: After maintaining the stay for over six months, Peshawar High Court suspended the interim order preventing the federal government from collecting Gas Infrastructure Development Cess from industrial units and CNG filling stations across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The decision was made by a bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaiser on Tuesday. The federal government moved an application with the court, saying the Supreme Court suspended PHC’s stay in the said matter on May 15, pursuing another petition in the aforementioned case.

During the course of hearing, Additional Attorney General Syed Attique Shah told the court the federal government had imposed GIDC through an ordinance issued in 2014. It was passed from the national legislature and imposed as a law.

Shah said different industrial units filed a petition through Section 65 of the GIDC Act following which the PHC issued a stay order restraining the government from cess collection. It was first issued against the writ petition of AJ Textile Mills Ltd.

The additional attorney general said the government approached the apex court which suspended the stay order. Shah requested PHC to revoke its directive.

Upon hearing the arguments, the court suspended the stay order and directed all petitioners to submit their written replies.

Avoiding repayment?

In the petitions filed with PHC earlier, petitioners said no meetings of the Senate or the National Assembly were convened in September 2014 yet the federal government passed the GODC Act in order to dodge the repayment of collected cess that was declared illegal.

The cess was earlier levied in 2011 in order to raise funds for projects like the Iran Pakistan Gas Pipeline project.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2015.