CM orders case filing against FBR for Rs7 billion refund deducted at source

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the FBR was reluctant to refund Rs7054.743 million it had deducted from the Provincial Consolidated fund during 2012, 2015 and 2016, therefore he directed his legal team to prepare a case against FBR and file it in the high court.

This he said on Monday while presiding over a meeting at New Secretariat regarding recovery of unconstitutional and unauthorized deduction by FBR from the provincial consolidated fund. The meeting was attended by Minister Excise & Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Finance Secretary Excise Raheem Shaikh, DG Excise Shoaib Siddqui and others.

Excise & Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumwar Chawla briefing the chief minister said that his department has been agitating at various for a such as Inland Revenue department and Income Tax Tribunal against unilateral, unjustified, unconstitutional and unauthorized deduction by the FBR from the Provincial Consolidated Fund.

Mr Chawla said that a series of meetings were held with FBR/Inland Revenue Officers at Karachi and Islamabad but no concrete steps were taken to refund the amount of Rs7054.737 million at source deducted during 2012-13, 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The chief minister said that he had taken up the matter in CCI meeting but held in September 2018 but no appropriate decision about refund of the deducted amount was made. Therefore, he directed his legal team to prepare a case and file in the court. “We will fight this case in the court because FBR and the federal government has no intention to refund the amount,” he said.

Minister Excise told the chief minister that they have filed seven appeals, one of them was pending at deputy director FBR. AT this, the chief minister said that he was ready to appear before the DD FBR, “I have no problem to appear at any forum but I am committed I’ll get these funds back because they belong to people of Sindh and they are meant for Sindh’s uplift,” he said.

The chief minister was told that another appeal was pending in the Inland Revenue Tribunal, FBR. The chief minister directed him to follow the case with full force and tell him its next hearing and he would also appear there.

It may be noted that the FBR has deducted RsRs590.4522 million in 2012, Rs861.267 million in 2014, Rs599.401 million in 2015, Rs6.127 billion in 2016 and Rs294.53 million in 2016. The chief minister directed the Finance department to work out interest on the amount deducted by FBR fro 2013 so that interest could also be claimed.

The chief minister also said that he would write a letter to the to the prime minister against this injustice and would urge him to issue necessary directive for refund of at source deducted funds of over Rs 7 billion.