KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan has barred the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) from deducting Rs125.163 million as withholding tax (WHT) dues from the Sindh government’s account.
Earlier, the State Bank of Pakistan had directly transferred more than Rs10 billion to Federal Board of Revenue from the Sindh government accounts as withholding tax under Section 13 IB and 234 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001 and Section 48 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, for recovery of government dues.
According to the SBP Deputy Chief Manager Muhammad Khalid’s letter to the FBR authorities, in terms of Article 121 (d) of the Constitution of Pakistan, the direct deduction could not be made. The Sindh government to deal with the tactics of FBR has recently not only appointed a tax adviser but also decided to approach the upper courts on the issue after exhausting all forums concerned.
The CM, in his letter, narrated that the government of Sindh was aggrieved by such arbitrary deduction and not agreed with the assessments made by FBR officers on alleged assumptions.
He had also quoted the figures of different departments whose amount deducted directly: according to figures Rs6,127.116 million of the Sindh Excise and Taxation Department; Rs1.710 million of the Sindh Information and Archives; Rs11.878 million of the Sindh Board of Revenue; Rs59.069 million of Mines and Minerals Department; Rs122.324 million of the Sindh Prison department and Rs87.5 million of Sindh Education Department. The Sindh government lauded the SBP’s decision and vowed to fight for the all rights of the province.
