Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed his legal team to file a case against Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in the high court (SHC) against FBR's reluctance to refund Rs 7054.743 million which it had deducted from the provincial consolidated fund during 2012, 2015 and 2016.
He said this, presiding over a meeting regarding recovery of unconstitutional and unauthorised deduction by FBR from the provincial consolidated fund. The meeting held at New Sindh Secretariat was attended by Minister Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Principal Secretary to the CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretaries for Finance and Excise, DG Excise Shoaib Siddiqui and others.
The chief minister directed the Finance department to work out interest on the amount deducted by FBR from 2013 so that interest could also be claimed.
The chief minister also said that he would write a letter to the prime minister against this injustice and would urge him to issue necessary directive for refund the said amount.
Briefing the chief minister, provincial E&T Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said his department had been fighting Sindh's genuine case at various concerned forums such as Inland Revenue department and Income Tax Tribunal against unilateral, unjustified, unconstitutional and unauthorised deduction by the FBR from the provincial consolidated fund.
Chawla said that a series of meetings were held with FBR/Inland Revenue Officers at Karachi and Islamabad but no concrete steps were taken to refund Rs 7054.737 million which were deducted at source during 2012-13, 2015-16 and 2016-17.
The chief minister said he had taken up the matter at the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting held in September 2018 but no appropriate decision regarding refund of the deducted amount was made. Therefore, he directed his legal team to prepare a case and file that in the court. He said federal government has no intention to refund the amount; therefore, Sindh government would wage legal battle.
Minister Excise told the chief minister they had filed seven appeals, one of them was pending with deputy director FBR. At this, the chief minister said he was ready to appear before the DD FBR.
"I have no problem to appear at any forum but I am committed I'll get these funds back because they belong to people of Sindh and they are meant for Sindh's uplift," he said.
The chief minister was told that another appeal was pending with Inland Revenue Tribunal, FBR. He directed Chawla to follow the case with full force and tell him in its next hearing where he would also appear.