LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Monday stayed recovery of Universal Obligation Fund Surcharge (UOFS), Debt Servicing Surcharge (DSS) and Neelam-Jhelum surcharge (NJS) in electricity bills to the extent of Punjab province after suspending their notifications.
The division bench headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah passed the orders on a petition filed by Judicial Activism Panel and Muhammad Azhar Siddique against imposition of said surcharges.
Earlier, petitioner Muhammad Azhar Siddique arguing before the court that the federal government was authorised to impose surcharge under Section 31(5) of the Electricity Act 1997 but these powers were granted under Finance Act 2008.
He contended that the section 31(5) of the act was ultra vires of the Constitution as surcharge was not a tax and said section was added through finance bill. "no amendment could be made through finance bill to impose a surcharge ", he added. He contended that it was also a violation of fundamental rights especially Articles 9, 14,18,23,24, 37 and 38 of the Constitution.
The petitioner pleaded the court to set aside the said surcharges after declaring them ultra vires of the Constitution.
He also pleaded the bench to stop the recovery of said surcharges after suspending notifications of October 3 and November 1 for their implementation.
The bench after recording initial arguments stopped the recovery of surcharges and sought a reply from Government and NEPRA till January 13.
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