Islamabad: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) has ordered 13 large-scale manufacturing (LSM) industries to pay a 4% applicable ‘super tax’ to the federal government, news sources reported on February 17.
The tax will be collected by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and is expected to fetch PKR 150 billion from industries. As per the sources, the SC, in its verdict, asked the industries to comply with the government in the collection of taxes due with retrospective effect from July 1, 2021. The tax is applicable under Section C-4 of the Finance Act of 2022 passed by the government last year to shore up the tax shortfall. The supertax recovery, according to FBR sources, would bring PKR 250 billion into government coffers and aid in closing the tax gap, which has reached 5.12%, or PKR 214 billion, in the first seven months (July-January) of 2022–23.
The SC order has given the FBR permission to recover tax from industries such as steel, banking, cement, cigarettes, chemicals, beverages, liquefied natural gas terminals, airlines, textiles, cars, sugar refineries, oil and gas, and fertiliser.
It’s crucial to remember that the government implemented the special tax in June 2022. However, businesses across the country moved high courts to bar the government from collecting taxes on past transactions.
Nauman Ahmad is an imaginative Pisces whose love for literature and nature is unparalleled. When he's not reading or hiking, he's sleeping and eating, which gives him plenty of energy for his next adventure.
