PHC stops SNGPL from collecting GIDC

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday stopped the SNGPL from collection of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) from industrial units and CNG stations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Muhammad Daud Khan issued the stay order in a writ petition of hundreds of industrial units and CNG stations of the province. The bench restrained the SNGPL from collection of GIDC under the newly passed GIDC Act 2015 tilled next order of the court.
The petitioners lawyer, Shumail Ahmad Butt submitted before the bench that first the new act was against the law and illegal as the legislatures did not remove the defects in the law as pointed out by the Supreme Court. Second, the collection of GIDC from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was discrimination with the industrial sector of the province as through the new act, the government was collecting the cess only from Punjab and KP provinces and it had exempted two provinces including Sindh and Balochistan from the cess.