PHC dismisses Pedo’s writ petition for being non-maintainable

Rs2.5b recovery case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday dismissed a writ petition of the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) about the recovery of Rs2.5 billion for being non-maintainable.

A division bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth said the petitioner could approach the proper forum, which in this case was the Commissioner Income Tax.

Neelam A Khan, counsel for the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), submitted that the petition was non-maintainable as under the law the appeal against the decision of Assistant Commissioner Income Tax can be filed at the court of Commissioner Income Tax.

She argued that the petitioner institution bypassed the court of Commissioner Income Tax and directly filed petition in the high court, adding it was liable to be dismissed for being non-maintainable.

Earlier on June 21, 2016, the court had stayed the recovery of Rs2.5 billion from Pedo in the writ petition filed against the issuance of sales tax notice by the FBR on account of power generation from a unit in Malakand.

During the course of hearing, the lawyer for Pedo, Shumail Butt, said the FBR officials had been raiding different banks where his client held accounts asking them to pay the ‘controversial’ amount from there.

He alleged the the bank officials were threatened with stringent action and arrests over failure to pay the said amount from the accounts of Pedo.

He said the power generation unit in question, Malakand-III Hydel Power Project, was situated in the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) where there was no Sales Tax.

He said the Sales Tax Act had not been extended to Pata in terms of Article 247 of the Constitution.

Shumail Butt said the power stations owned by the provincial government were covered in the ambit of Article 165 of the Constitution and, therefore, they’re not liable to be taxed.

He said Pedo was accountable to the provincial government and is running various power projects in Pata.