Islamabad: The Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday directed the large-scale manufacturing industries (LSMs) to pay a 4% supertax.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, and having Justice Ayesha A Malik and Justice Athar Minallah as its other members, heard the petitions filed by the federal government and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
On February 6, the Supreme Court of Pakistan modified an impugned order of the Lahore High Court (LHC) and directed wealthy taxpayers to deposit 50% of due “supertax” directly with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) within one week.
In July last year, the federal government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Miftah Ismail as the economic czar, announced the imposition of a “super tax” of 10% on large-scale industries to relieve the poor from the burden of additional taxation.
Taxpayers had challenged the imposition of the super tax with retrospective effect for the tax year 2022 and onward before the LHC.
The LHC had stayed the recovery proceeding and directed FBR to allow different industries to file their returns, excluding the super tax subject to the deposit of post-dated cheques of the differential amount.
It was further said that the cheques would be encashed at the direction of the court or subject to the final decision of the case.
However, the LHC order of Sept 29, 2022, was challenged in the Supreme Court by FBR through a lawyer Ms Asma Hamid.
In the wake of the Supreme Court order, the FBR now expects a sizable revenue collection to bridge the shortfall in the coming months.
