Mari Energies Limited, one of Pakistan’s largest E&Ps, has completed the tax compliance process related to its 800% bonus share issuance, in line with directives from the Islamabad High Court.
The listed company disclosed the development in its notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday.
“Pursuant to the Honourable Islamabad High Court order, Mari Energies Limited has successfully concluded the necessary measures for recovery and deposit of tax relating to the issuance of 800% bonus shares as required under the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001,” the company informed its stakeholders.
The company implemented a mechanism to recover and deposit the applicable tax with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) by withholding and disposing of a portion of bonus shares from both filer and non-filer shareholders.
As part of the tax recovery mechanism, Mari Energies initially retained 10% of the bonus shares for shareholders classified as filers, and 20% for non-filers, it said.
“Their retained shares were disposed of, and the proceeds were deposited with FBR and adjusted against the tax obligations of the relevant shareholders,” read the notice.
Meanwhile, in instances where the retained shares were insufficient to satisfy the pertinent tax obligations, the company was authorised by the Court to retain additional shares under lien (10% for filers and 20% for non-filers) and recently authorised to dispose of the shares under lien to the extent of the tax liability.
“Accordingly, lien-marked bonus shares belonging to shareholders who did not fulfil their tax payment obligations have been proportionately disposed of to satisfy their individual tax liabilities,” MARI said.
The company informed that a uniform weighted average sale price was applied across all such transactions.
It added that these supplementary disposals amounted to approximately 0.38% of the total bonus issue for filers and about 0.76% for non-filers. “The proceeds from these transactions, representing the recovered tax, are being deposited with the FBR.”
Meanwhile, the remaining bonus shares have been credited to the respective shareholders’ accounts with the Central Depository Company (CDC), it said.
Mari Energies is the country’s second-largest producer of natural gas. It is an integrated oil and gas E&P company with an exploration success rate of around 70%, which is significantly higher than the industry averages of approximately 30% nationally and 14% internationally.
The company operates Pakistan’s largest gas reservoir at Mari Gas Field, Daharki, Sindh.
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