Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Thursday accepted appeals of the federal government and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and ordered the large-scale manufacturing industries to pay 4 percent supertax. A three-member SC bench comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ayesha A Malik and Justice Athar Minallah heard the case regarding collection of super tax from large scale industries. It should be noted that various industries had challenged the super tax levied in the last year’s budget, after which the Sindh High Court had invalidated the collection of 10 percent super tax from last year. The federal government and FBR had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court for recovery of super tax. Last year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a 10 percent tax on major industries including cement, steel, sugar, oil and gas, fertilizers, LNG terminals, textiles, banking, automobiles, chemicals, beverages and cigarettes. Through the Finance Act 2022, the government introduced a new section C-4 in the Income Tax Ordinance to impose a super tax on high income earners. Through this section, FBR had imposed 10% super tax on 13 sectors earning more than Rs 150 million in FY 2022. The decision had since been challenged on various grounds in almost all the high courts of the country. Similarly, more than 100 petitions were filed in the Sindh High Court challenging the constitutionality of the provisions of the Finance Act, 2022. The petitions stated that the federal government has also imposed tax on past transactions in the Finance Act 2022. On December 22, 2022, the Sindh High Court had declared the tax implementation invalid from the previous fiscal year and stated that the tax would be applicable from the next tax year. However, the federal government and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) filed appeals in the Supreme Court. While ruling on the above appeals, the Supreme Court ordered the payment of 4 percent super tax to all the parties. Earlier on February 6, the Supreme Court modified the interim order of the Lahore High Court and directed taxpayers with higher income to remit 50 percent of their super tax directly to the FBR within a week.