Lahore: The Lahore Court (LHC) expressed its strong refusal to exempt the Federal Revenue Council (FBR) from paying the court fees to raise the tax auditor, while ordinary litigants must pay 50,000 rupees for each reference.
The court described this as a clear issue of discrimination and depriving Pakistani citizens who are equal to justice.
The court’s statements during its ruling regarding the case related to the cancellation of the law (appeal) of laws (amending) laws, 2024.
The court confirmed that although FBR does not face any financial barrier in submitting the tax auditor because of its exemption from the court fees, the ordinary litigants are burdened with a fee of 50,000 rupees for each reference. This unequal treatment, according to LHC, violates the basic rights of guaranteed citizens under Article 4, 10-A and 37 (D) of the constitution.
In addition, LHC noted that the tax decree determines the multi -stage appeal process, starting with the Commissioner (Appeal), then the Court of Appeal, and in the end, the possibility of a tax reference to the court. However, the amendment has removed a single appeal forum, which increased the complexity of the legal process.
In its response, the Ministry of Law and Justice clarified that the goal of the amendment is to reduce the number of appeals, simplify the process, and accelerate the decisions of cases. He referred to concerns about the delays caused by an arbitrary constitution of seats and insufficient seats numbers, which led to the accumulation of cases, with approximately 2 trillion rupee in cases before the ATIR Appeals Court revenues.
The ministry has argued that reducing appeals would lead to savings in administrative costs and inhibit the trivial litigation.
