KARACHI: A constitutional petition was filed on Monday in the Sindh High Court against the withholding tax on bank transactions.

The petitioner impleaded the federal finance ministry, chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and governor of the State Bank of Pakistan as respondents.

In his petition, Advocate Moulvi Iqbal Haider asked the court to direct the respondent authorities to withdraw the notification of withholding tax. He said 0.6 per cent withholding tax on each banking transaction of over Rs50,000 was imposed by the respondents which was unjust, unfair and inviolate of articles 4, 5, 9, 14, 16, 18, 25 and 77 of the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The petitioner stated that after the imposition of double tax, traders decided to withdraw their savings from banks as mark of protest and declared it exorbitant and unjustified move by the government.

He said the traders claimed that they had lost millions of rupees over the past couples of weeks due to the tax on bank transactions of over Rs50,000 at the rate of 0.6 per cent.

The petitioner requested the court to restrain the respondents from demanding 0.6 per cent as withholding tax on banking transaction till the final decision of the court.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2015

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