LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has suspended the 2015-Audit Policy introduced by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The court also ordered the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to set new principals for the selection of taxpayers’ cases for audit.
According to details, Justice Shahid Jameel Khan heard the case and issued the detailed judgment of 46 pages on the applications filed by about 829 taxpayers in the LHC.
The court mentioned in the detailed judgment that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should increase the capacity of the department to conduct the audit of those taxpayers’ cases which have been lingering on the last five years.
The court also ordered the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to not select the cases for audit whose audits have already been conducted, and the FBR should follow these guidelines after issuance of an audit report.
The court further said in the judgment that if the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) may not complete audit of any case then audit selection should be considered as abolished. Under the Article 10 (A) of Constitution of Pakistan, the taxpayers should be allowed for transparent trail.
The court also mentioned that for the selection of any taxpayer’s case for audit, the FBR must follow income tax and sales tax rules and also include Section-7 of the FBR Act in the rules. The court compels the FBR to follow the court guidelines for the selection of any case for audit.
