LHC dismisses plea of Tareen’s sugar mill against FBR notice

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has withdrawn a stay order and dismissed a petition of JDW Sugar Mills, owned by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) estranged leader Jahangir Khan Tareen, against a notice issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for audit of the mills accounts.

Previously, the court had suspended the operation of the notice that had sought the audit of the 2015 period. The mills’ counsel had argued that FBR had no powers to conduct audit of the five-year-old accounts. He requested the court to declare the audit notice void and restrain the tax body from taking any punitive action against the mills. He stated that the mill was a big taxpayer and it regularly paid taxes and as per the law, the FBR was not empowered to audit any business institution after the passage of a five year period. He said the respondent was empowered to hold an audit of the mills for the 2015 period till September 30, 2020, but the period had now expired. The FBR’s counsel, however, opposed the petition and said the board had jurisdiction to hold an audit of any period. He further said that the petitioner/mills did not avail the first remedy before the board and directly approached the court. After hearing both sides, the court dismissed the petition and withdrew the stay order.