KARACHI – Clarifying the statement of Minster~ for Labour and Manpower Khurshid Shah in the Parliament on last Friday regarding sales tax defaulter TV channels, a leading media group, that is running two major newspapers (Urdu and English), has stated that the statistics presented by the Minister with regard to non-payment of GST were ex-aggregated and contrary to the facts.
The spokesman of the said group in a statement said it had already taken recourse to the apex court on the unjustifiable demand of the GST. Besides, other legal issues under the relevant provisions of Sales Tax Act, if any person collects any tax or charge, whether under misapprehension of any provision of this act or otherwise and the incidence of which has been passed to the consumer, he shall pay the amount of tax or charge so collected to the Federal Government.
The Spokesman stated that the counsel of the group while pleading the petition before the Sindh High Court had argued that the sales tax was not applicable to the group and the sales tax so far collected by it was due to misapprehension of the law and the incidence of sales tax collected by this group had not been passed on to the consumer, therefore, it could not be paid to the Federal Government.
The above constitutional petition is pending with Sindh High Court (SHC. The decision of the higher judiciary is yet to come out; however, the court had issued a stay order restraining the government for taking any action against the group running two major news- papers (English and Urdu) until the final verdict is delivered.
The spokesman stated that to name the group as a defaulter of the GST in the NA session on the part of the government is a pressurizing tactics against the company and accordingly the group reserves the right to embark on judicial action in this connection, after consulting its legal advisors.
The matter of GST is a disputed issue and the group is not a defaulter. The spokesman said matters `relating to this TV channel are different from other channels of the country and the government’s counsel had accepted the same in the high court.
The spokesman alleged that the government was completely determined to harming the group and its businesses; some private and non- government advertisers were stopped by government functionaries for giving ads to the Group.
This led the Group to suffer massive financial losses and the repercussions of the*same are still being sustained, as the programmes of the TV channel were bared in Pakistan, however, the Group kept on its production as per routine.
The spokesman said the financial losses affected the cash flow of the group for long time and the Group had to go full length of a year to reach at its former level of income.
However, the after-effects are still there, which resulting in the issues like GST to crop up. Due to issuing notices to different advertisers by the government department, various large advertisers stopped payments to the TV channel. Consequently, a handsome amount of Rs500 million is remained unpaid by these advertisers.
The refund worth nearly Rsl00 million owing to the excess payment by the Group under income tax is still owed by the government to the group for long. The government also has to pay to the Group nearly Rs170 million for advertisements, stalled by them since long.
Spokesman added that the laws/ rules provide a frame work for a relationship between the department and the tax payers but we are not extended that kind of relationship but being dealt in a hostile manner. In this connection, the former high-ups of notorious Accountability Cell are being deployed in the Departments.
The spokesman said it is nobody else but the government itself who is strangulating the Group financially; in contrast, it is constitutionally binding upon the government to protect the rights of citizens to do business and to create enabling environment. The spokesman said the large government ad campaigns are not being given to the Group. The; present government has deprived the group of the government’s ads worth about 25O~ millions of Rupees.
+ National Bank was asked to immediately withdraw its financial facilities afforded to the Group, which later on, filed: a suit in the SHC. The media group also filed a suit in the Sindh High Court, which issued a stay order to refraining’ the Bank from taking any action against the Group.
Source: The Nation
Date:5/18/2010
