KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the Commissioner Inland Revenue Appeals-I Hyderabad to decide the appeal of the petitioner within four weeks on a constitutional petition filed by M/s Techno Fabrik Private Limited seeking an order for de-freezing its bank accounts and restraining for any coercive action.
A two-member bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, was hearing the petition.
During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner completed his arguments. After his arguments, the court disposed of the constitutional petition with the directions to respondents not to enforce recovery of impugned demand, which is subject matter of appeal before commissioner appeals-I, till its final disposal whereas in case of any adverse order if passed by the commissioner appeals, the respondents shall not enforce recovery of impugned demand for further period of seven days from the date of receipt of such appellate order.
The court also mentioned in its order that “it is expected that the appeals of the petitioner, if not disposed of so far by the commissioner IR appeals-I Hyderabad, shall be decided within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of this order, which may be communicated to it in the counsel for the petitioner within a week”.
Earlier, counsel for the petitioner stated that petitioner is fulfilling all the liabilities and paying duty and taxes regularly but Additional Inland Revenue E&C Unit-VII Range-B, Zone-II Regional Tax Office Hyderabad, erred on disallowing the sales tax input claim on the ground that the suppliers failed to declare the sales in their sales tax returns, however the petitioner claimed the input tax on valid sales tax invoices issued by the respective suppliers which can be reconciled and payments were made through banking channel.
According to the petitioner, officials of the tax authorities issued show cause notice and seized the bank accounts illegally. Being aggrieved, it filed an appeal along with a stay application which is pending before the CIR Appeals.
Citing the Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue Regional Tax Office RTO, the Commissioner IR Appeals and the Additional Inland Revenue E&C Unit-VII Range-B, Zone-II Regional Tax Office Hyderabad, as respondents, petitioner pleaded with the court to direct the appellate authority to decide its appeal within a reasonable period.
