Appeals against infrastructure cess imposed by the Sindh government on importers and exporters sought it to be declared illegal and unconstitutional because provisions of Constitution of Pakistan prohibit provincial governments to legislate on taxes.
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani heard identical appeals related to infrastructure cess. Senior Advocate Khalid Anwer argued the infrastructure cess was discriminatory which was being charged from imports and exporters only.
He maintained that Sindh government was generating tax from importers and exporters on the pretext of developing provincial infrastructure like roads, libraries, hospitals, forests and funds for police. Khalid Anwar asserted that rates have been scheduled to charge the levy from importers and exporters' trucks exclusively, adding that these roads of the province are also being used by other people for different purpose but they are exempted from infrastructure cess.
The provincial government has focused on those vehicles which contain import and export goods, adding that the roads are also being used by other commuters for different purposes so why they are exempted from the tax, the counsel added. He maintained that the infrastructure cess is discriminatory because merely a ten percent importers or exporters containers moving on the roads have been linked to the cess.
While making a point to make it clear to the bench Khalid Anwar said if two trucks carried cement from Hyderabad to Karachi and one is carrying export consignment it was bound to pay infrastructure cess whereas the other which was also to be unloaded in Karachi was exempted from the cess, while both the vehicles used the same road.
He added that provincial government has no jurisdiction to legislate the infrastructure cess for importers and exporters because it is completely a federal subject under Article of 142 of the Constitution which authorised the Federal government to legislate about tax matter exclusively.
"It is a violation of Federal list, contained in the fourth schedule to the Constitution of Pakistan read with its Article 142 which authorises the Parliament for legislation". The court time was over so the bench adjourned the hearing till today (Thursday).
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.