ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will announce its reserved judgment on Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) Thursday (Aug 13).
A three-member special bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah after hearing 107 petitions/appeals of various textile mills, cotton mills, sugar mills, ceramics companies, chemicals, CNG filing stations, match factories, cement companies and aluminum industries regarding GIDC levy for two weeks on February 20, 2020, had reserved the judgment.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah in the last hearing had observed that the government started collecting the GIDC from 2011, and till 2016, it did not know about these projects.
The projects are heavily depended upon the GIDC.
The projects, so far, are on paper, and there is nothing on the ground, he added.
Justice Mushir said when the matter (GIDC) was brought in the Supreme Court then the government started the paper work and prepared future plans.
The government seems to be relying only on the funding and taxes, while no funding from other sources was generated for these projects.
Makhdoom Ali Khan, who represented the gas stations and fertiliser companies, had argued that collection by the federal government in respect of the GIDC far exceeded the service provided. "In fact the services are zero," he added.
When the fee becomes excessive then the government has to provide the service.
The GIDC Act was approved by the National Assembly in December 2011 imposing cess on gas consumers, other than the domestic sector, to develop infrastructure for a number of projects including Iran-Pakistan Pipeline Project, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Pipeline Project and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project and for price equalization of imported alternative fuels including LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). In April 15, 2015, the apex court rejected the federal government's petition seeking review of its August 22, 2014 verdict, and clarify that the collection of then over Rs100 billion under GIDC Act was not liable to be refunded to the industrial consumers of gas from whom it was recovered.
The then GIDC law had legalised the cess recovery from the non-domestic consumers, mainly industries. Later, on the expiry of the GIDC ordinance, the National Assembly and the Senate passed the GIDC Act 2015, and repealed the GIDC Act 2011.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020