ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its decision on the Gas Infrastructure Development Case (GIDC).
The court in its ruling said that the counsels of parties could submit their contentions in writing within 15 days.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam had taken up the GIDC case related to the levy of the GIDC since 2015. The bench also comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces backed the the federal decision of implementation of the cess during hearing of the GIDC case.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government opposed enforcement of the GIDC. The KP government doesn’t want enforcement of the cess on the industry, which is already heavily burdened, Additional Advocate General said.
During the course of proceedings, senior counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan, representing a section of the CNG sector, argued that our industry will not benefit from TAPI or Iran Pakistan Pipeline projects.
The court reserved the judgment to be announced at a proper time.
The Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) was imposed as a levy by the Peoples’ Party government in 2011 on gas consumers in the industrial sector. The money collected was to be used for the construction of infrastructure projects such as the Iran-Pakistan pipeline, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline and the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) projects.
