The Ministry of Energy has reinforced the Federal Bureau of Revenue's (FBR) position to not provide commercial or industrial connection of electricity or gas to anyone unless the person is registered under Section 181AA of Income Tax Ordinance-2001.
In a tweet, FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi presented the letter which he received from the Power Division while stating “Ministry of Energy has reinforced FBR position.”
Ministry of Energy has reinforced FBR position: pic.twitter.com/03WvSoZ28e
— Syed Shabbar Zaidi (@ShabarZaidi) 1 November 2019
The Section 181AA – Compulsory Registration in Certain Cases – states that 'Notwithstanding anything contained in any law, for the time being in force, any application for Commercial/Industrial Connection of electricity or Natural Gas, shall not be processed and such connection shall not be provided unless the person applying for electricity or gas connection is registered under section 181.'
This section restricts every individual who are going to put the application for commercial/Industrial electricity connection to get NTN as a prerequisite.
The move is a part of FBR's drive for the registration of all industrial and commercial consumers of electricity.
The development comes after Zaidi asked the Ministry of Power that any application for commercial/industrial connection of electricity/gas shall not be processed unless the applicant is registered under section 181AA of Income Tax Ordinance 2001. In this regard, the FBR sought Power Division's support for implementation of section 181AA of Income Tax Ordinance.
The chairman in his letter to Ministry of Power sought its help for the implementation of Section 181AA of Income Tax Ordinance-2001 which specifically stipulates that any application for commercial or industrial connection of electricity or gas shall not be processed and such connection shall not be provided unless the person applying for electricity or gas connection is registered under the said section which pertains to filing of income tax returns.