FBR, Tesco put on notice for taxes in bills of merged districts

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday issued a notice to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Tribal Electric Supply Company (Tesco) for recovering sales tax and income tax through the monthly electricity bills from the industrial units in erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) despite the fact that these districts were exempted from the levy till June 30, 2023.

A division bench comprising Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Nasir Mehfooz directed the FBR and Tesco to appear and explain position before the court.

The case was fixed for a hearing today. The bench issued the notice in the 25 writ petitions filed by owners of steel mills including Universal Steel Mills and others against the sales tax, income tax and other taxes in the monthly electricity bills.

The petitioners said they were exempted from the taxes by the government through notifications for five years after merger of tribal districts with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioners submitted before the bench that the FBR had granted sales tax exemption on supplies, withholding tax and income tax exemption on individuals, companies and association of persons of the erstwhile Fata and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) from June 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023.

He contended that the FBR had also issued SRO 1212(1)/2018 and SRO 1213(1)/2018 to grant tax exemptions to the residents of erstwhile Fata/Pata. The lawyer argued that despite exemption, the Tesco had issued huge taxes in the monthly bills to the petitioners, which was illegal and unlawful act of the respondents.