SC restores taxes on mobile phone scratch cards

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday restored all taxes on mobile phone scratch cards.

The case pertaining to taxes on mobile phone scratch cards was heard by a three-member bench of the apex court 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 Article 184-3 could be heard.

The top court stated that it could not issue orders on matters related to taxes.

With the restoration of taxes on scratch cards from now as much as Rs25 will be deducted on every Rs100 card.  The court said that it doesn't want to intervene 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 counsel.

In earlier proceedings, the apex court had been informed by the counsel for Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) that Rs90 billion in taxes were not collected due to the suspension of one point of tax collection law.

In June 2018, under former CJP Justice (retd) Saqib Nisar, the Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice and ordered suspension in deduction of taxes prepaid on mobile phone scratch cards