SHC wants PCB plea against entertainment duty decided

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday gave the excise & taxation department two weeks to decide the revision application filed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) against the demand of entertainment duty for holding international and T20 matches in Karachi.

The direction came on a PCB petition against the excise department’s denial of entertainment duty exemption. The PCB said in the petition that national and international T20 and Test matches were hosted at Karachi’s National Stadium in December, January-February and March after the revival of international cricket in Pakistan.

The counsel for the petitioner said the excise department had exempted the PCB from paying entertainment duty in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2018. However, added the counsel, when the PCB filed an application for entertainment duty exemption with the excise department for the seventh edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), and the West Indies and Australia tours, the plea was denied through a non-speaking order.

He said the PCB constitution makes it clear that any revenue earned by the board is reinvested into cricket, so the denial of exemption on the petitioner’s application without providing any justification and contrary to past practice is unlawful and liable to be set aside.

He added that the petitioner had also filed a review application against the demand notice, but the plea had remained pending for the past several months. He pointed out that refusal by the respondents will effectively mean that the petitioner will be constrained from selecting the National Stadium as a venue for organising its events in future because other provinces do not levy entertainment duty in line with the spirit of the West Pakistan Entertainment Duty Act.

The counsel for the petitioner said he would be satisfied if the court directs the excise department to decide the review application of the PCB at the earliest in accordance with the law. An SHC division bench headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan directed the excise department to decide the petitioner’s review application after considering it in accordance with the law and providing an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.

The court directed the excise department’s competent authority to pass a speaking order within two weeks’ time from the date of the receipt of the revision application. The bench ordered that no coercive measures should be adopted against the PCB until the decision of the review application and the disposal of the petition.

The excise department had issued notices to the PCB for the payment of entertainment duty amounting to Rs3.1 million in respect of three T20 cricket matches between Pakistan and West Indies, PSL 7 and a Test match between Pakistan and Australia.