LHC restrains FBR in Tareen's sugar mills audit case

LAHORE: A bench of Lahore High Court on Monday issued stay order against the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) notices to JDW Sugar Mills of Jahangir Tareen, ARY News reported.

The sugar mills has approached the high court challenging its selection for audit by the Inland Revenue department of the FBR.

Justice Jawad Hassan heard the petition of the sugar mills against the notices of FBR and issued a notice to the taxation authority.

The counsel of the mills said that his client was not a defaulter and regularly paying income tax, but the board has sent it three notices one after another for recovery of the income tax and selected the mills for income tax audit.

The mills’ counsel submitted in a petition that the FBR launched an audit of the five-year old accounts of the company. He argued that the Inland Revenue department could not hold audit of accounts beyond five years under the law.

The mills had sought the court’s restraining order against the FBR proceedings and declaring the notices dated October 16, 22 and 29 as void.

The high court bench issued restraining order against the notices to served to the sugar mills and issued notice to the FBR.