FCC reserves ruling on petitions challenging Super Tax judgement
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Monday reserved its ruling on a set of petitions seeking a review of its Jan 27 judgement upholding the vires of the Super Tax, while highlighting that Sections 4B and 4C of the Income Tax Ordinance (ITO), 2001, would apply from the dates on which they were levied. Headed by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, a three-judge FCC bench, comprising…
The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has reserved its decision on a series of petitions that question the validity of the Super Tax ruling from January 27th. The three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan and including Justices Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Syed Arshad Hussain Shah, will now decide whether Sections 4B and 4C of the Income Tax Ordinance (2001) are constitutional.
These sections were applied starting from the dates they were enacted. The ruling declared that the legislature has the power to impose, abolish, remit, alter, or regulate the Super Tax through a Finance Act as part of a Money Bill under Article 73(2)(a) of the Constitution. As a result, numerous companies, like Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd and Total Parco Pakistan Limited, among others, filed petitions to challenge the decision.
On Monday, senior counsel such as Dr Farogh Nasim, Khalid Javed Khan, and Sardar Ahmed Jamal Sukhera argued that the retroactive application of the tax is unconstitutional and that the Finance Act 2022 should not apply retroactively. Sukhera claimed that the tax's objective was to generate around Rs215 billion, but the government's spending on other matters was significantly higher, making the tax arbitrary and unreasonable. The FCC will now determine if the Super Tax should be struck down.
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