LHC extends stay order till 11th for Tareen mills audit

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) extended the stay order against the operation of a notice by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for an audit of the JDW Sugar Mills, owned by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen. After a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Justice Raheel Kamran had granted a stay order, suspending the operation of the notice seeking audit of 2015 period till further orders and restrained the FBR from taking a final decision on its audit notice. On Wednesday, the court extended the stay order till June 11 and sought replies from the FBR chairman and other respondents. The petitioner’s counsel argued that the FBR sent a notice for conducting an audit of the mills’ accounts on May 21 for the 2015 period. The record and documents regarding income tax have been sought by the board, it added.

“The FBR has no powers to conduct an audit of the five-year-old accounts,” the petitioner argued and pleaded with the High Court to declare the audit notice void and restrain the tax body from taking any punitive action against the mills.

He stated that the mill was a big taxpayer and it regularly paid taxes as per the law while the FBR was not empowered to audit any business institution after the passage of a five-year period. He said the respondent was empowered to hold an audit of the mills for the 2015 period till September 30, 2020, but the period had now expired.

He argued that the notice was not just illegal but also mala fide. He contended that the notice was in violation of Sections 122 and 174 of the tax ordinance. He pleaded with the court to set aside the notice being illegal and suspend its operation until the final decision of the petition. The court will resume hearing on June 11.