The Supreme Court withdraws stay order placed on collection of mobile phone scratch cards taxes on 24th April, 2019. The users will have to make them ready to pay the taxes again about Rs25 will be deducted on every Rs100 card.
A three-member bench of the court heard the case of taxes on mobile phone cards headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa.
During proceedings, there was a debate on whether matters pertaining to taxes could be heard under the Article 184-3. “The court stated that it could not issue orders on matters related to taxes. The court doesn’t want to interfere in matters of public revenue and taxes.”
The chief justice said that the court will not look into the recovery of revenues in response to a question of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) counsel.
Going back in June 2018, under former CJP Justice (retd) Saqib Nisar, the SC had taken suo motu notice and ordered deferral in deduction of taxes on mobile phone cards. But now for the betterment of Pakistan’s economy, Supreme Court again orders all the cellular service providers to deduct taxes on the cards.