LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday dismissed a petition of JDW Sugar Mills, owned by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Leader Jahangir Khan Tareen, against a notice issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for audit of the mills accounts.

The court had suspended the operation of the notice that sought audit of the 2015 period. Earlier the mills' counsel argued that FBR had no authority to conduct an audit of the five-year-old accounts. He asked the court to declare the audit notice as void and restrain the FBR from taking any punitive action against the mills.

He stated that the mill regularly paid taxes and as per the law, the FBR was not empowered to audit any business institution for the year 2015 till September 30, 2020, as the period had now expired.

The FBR's counsel, however, opposed the petition and said the board had jurisdiction to hold an audit of any period. He said that the petitioner/mills did not avail the first remedy before the board and directly approached the court. The court after hearing both sides, dismissed the petition.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021