— orders govt to set up tax benches in Quetta, Multan

Author: inp

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, on Tuesday, ordered the federal government to immediately establish the benches of Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue at Quetta and Multan to provide relief to the taxpayers. A three-member bench of the SC, comprising the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, issued these orders while hearing a suo motu case regarding, “Non-Functional Tribunals/Administrative Courts on Account of Vacancies”.

During the hearing, the apex court asked the Chairman of the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue, Shahid Masood Manzar Bhatti, if there was any bench in Quetta to resolve the issues of the taxpayers. On this, Bhatti replied that there was no bench in Quetta and all the taxpayers from Baluchistan had to travel to Karachi, along with their lawyers and tax officials, to seek tax relief.

The CJ termed this behaviour an injustice for the taxpayers of Baluchistan and asked why a bench could not be established in Quetta. He directed the relevant authority to take necessary steps to immediately set up benches of Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue at Quetta.

Similarly, to another similar question about a bench in Multan, the court was told that there was no bench of Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue in Multan and the taxpayers of Multan and adjoining areas had to travel to Lahore for getting justice. The SC issued the directions to establish an appellate bench in Multan immediately. Bhatti said that a letter would be written to the Registrar of the Baluchistan High Court for allocating a space to set up a bench and the Ministry of Law and Justice would also be informed in this regard.

Syed Tauqeer Bukhari, the President of Rawalpindi Islamabad Tax Bar Association (RITBA) who recently said that the unwarranted delay in the decisions of tax-related cases had resulted in stuck-up revenue of Rs1260 billion, welcomed this decision of the apex court and termed it a big relief for the taxpayers of remote areas.

Published in Daily Times, September 5^th 2018.