PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday put on notice the attorney general for Pakistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general in a writ petition challenging the levy of multiple taxes on wedding halls in the provincial capital both by the federal and provincial governments.

A bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain fixed for March 5 the hearing into the petition jointly filed by Spring Night Wedding Hall and 22 others with the direction that both federal and provincial laws had been challenged and therefore, the attorney general and the advocate general should assist the court on the questions raised by the petitioner.

Isaac Ali Qazi, lawyer for the petitioner, said the levy of triple taxation was unconstitutional and illegal.

He said currently, the wedding halls had to pay around 36 per cent of their income in taxes.

The lawyer said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for the first time introduced sales tax to the tune of 16 per cent on marriage halls through the Finance Act, 2013.

“Previously, sales tax was collected by the federal government. However, the federal government has made amendment in Section 236-D of the Income Tax Ordinance through the Federal Finance Act, 2013 and levied 10 per cent income tax on wedding halls,” he said.

Mr Qazi said the federal government had also imposed 10 per cent tax on food served by wedding halls as the government termed the supply of food a manufacturing process.

He said the federal and provincial governments had not been resolving the dispute about the triple taxation.