LHC suspends Rs19.9m tax recovery notices to Tareen’s sugar mills

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday suspended income tax recovery notices issued to JDW Sugar Mills owned by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's former secretary general Jahangir Tareen and directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to decide appeal of the mills within a month.

The counsel of the mills argued before the court that the FBR issued a notice for the recovery of Rs19.9 million income tax (financial year 2011) despite the fact that matter was pending before Inland Revenue Tribunal. The counsel also pointed out that commissioner Inland Revenue also issued a stay order in favour of the mills. However, he said, the FBR kept issuing notices for the recovery of the tax. He said the latest notice was issued to the mills on August 27.

The lawyer stated that the tax recovery notices had been issued by the FBR at the behest of the previous government on political motivation. He asked the court to set aside the tax recovery notice for being unlawful. Justice Shahid Waheed suspended the impugned notice and directed the FBR Inland Revenue Tribunal to decide the appeal of the sugar mills within 30 days.