Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and its subordinate officers have been restrained from the recovery of sales tax of more than Rs 60 million by a division bench of the High Court of Sindh, comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice S M Farooq. The order was passed on constitutional writ petition filed by Apollo Textile Mills Ltd. The bench further directed to issue notices to the Deputy Attorney General, Pakistan FBR and its subordinate officers for May 6 for further proceedings.
Senator Raza Rabbani and Saalim Salam Ansari, advocates of the petitioner contended before the bench that under the sales tax amnesty scheme announced, the recovery of two percent sales tax from the manufacturers/textile mills on the ground that the registered buyers, who are legally liable to pay the sales tax had not paid, the law does not provide the shifting of the liability to pay the sales tax upon the manufacturers/textile mills instead of registered buyers.