President Asif Ali Zardari affirmed the legal authority of the Sind Revenue Council (SRB) to impose and collect the Working Fund (WWF) in Karachi, and refused to appeal the Federal Revenue).
The decision supports the previous directive of FTO, which announced that FBR had no jurisdiction to collect the Global Fund for Nature in Sindh, as the issue falls under the authority of the boycott after the eighteenth constitutional amendment. The case arose from a complaint from the Saeed IQBAL, the owner of the company’s M/S packages for the company, Karachi, which challenged the imposition of WWF’s responsibility, which amounted to 92,453 rupees for the 2020 tax year under the 2001 Income Tax Law.
Iqbal argued that WWF should be collected by SRB, not FBR, according to Sindh WWF 2014 Law. Despite his response, the tax authorities imposed responsibility without addressing his objections. FTO rule with this step is illegal, noting that the World Fund for Nature is governed by a separate decree and cannot be imposed under Article 221 of the Income Tax Law.
FBR appealed to the President, to grow that the Global Fund for Nature remains under the federal judicial jurisdiction until a mutual agreed mechanism is developed, based on the decision of the Council of Joint Interests (CCI). However, President Zardari rejected this argument, saying that CCI or FBR could not overcome the constitution.
The ruling reinforces control over the provinces on the collection of the Global Fund for Nature, with a focus that the Supreme Court has already defined WWF as fees, not a tax, which makes federal amendments through financial laws 2006 and 2008 unconstitutional.
With the president’s decision, FBR must comply with FTO directives, and guidance of a member-IR policy to issue a clarification and requires the Commissioner-IR, RTO-1 Karachi, review the tax evaluation order. The case highlights the ongoing judicial disputes between federal tax authorities and regional regions after the eighteenth amendment.
