Court disposes of petition of Shehbaz's mills against FBR notice

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday disposed of a petition filed by PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif’s sugar mills challenging a tax audit notice of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

A bench of the high court directed the petitioner, Ramzan Sugar Mills, to approach the relevant forum for redressal of grievance.

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The court questioned how could the firm move the high court before approaching the relevant inland revenue tribunal to have its grievance redressed.

On June 11, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had dismissed a similar petition challenging the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) audit notice issued to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) estranged leader Jahangir Tareen’s sugar mills.

Justice Raheel Kamran Sheikh heard the petition filed by the JWD sugar mills. The court dismissed the plea after hearing arguments of the petitioner’s lawyer.

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The petition stated that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) sent a notice for conducting an audit of the mills’ accounts on May 21. The record and documents regarding income tax have been sought by the board, it added.

“The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have no powers to conduct an audit of the five-year-old accounts,” the petitioner argued and pleaded with the high court to declare the audit notice void and restrain the tax body from taking any punitive action against the mills.