PESHAWAR, June 15: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday adjourned hearing of a writ petition filed by Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao seeking exemption from payment of wealth tax on his foreign currency account in Switzerland. The petitioner’s counsel, Abdur Rauf Rohaila, contended before a two-member bench comprising Justice Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Ejaz Afzal, that this was a lengthy case and as the court timings were about to end, therefore he would not be able to conclude it.

He requested that as he also hadto appear before a Supreme Court bench in Peshawar, the case may be adjourned.

Advocate Eid Muhammad Khattak, representing the income tax department, did not oppose his request.

The petition was admitted to full hearing about three years ago.

Mr Sherpao has challenged the imposition of wealth tax to the tune of about Rs7.2 million on his foreign currency account of 500,000 pounds sterling.

The petitioner has stated that the income tax assessment officer had deleted that account while assessing income tax of the petitioner, but while making assessment of his wealth tax the same account was included in the wealth of the petitioner.

He added that the commissioner income tax again deleted that account from the wealth tax assessment, but the appellate tribunal again imposed the said wealth tax on an appeal filed by the income tax department.

The petitioner claimed that the tribunal had not touched the points regarding exemption of foreign currency accounts from the levy of the wealth tax. He stated that under section 6 of the Economic Reforms Act (Act NO XII) of 1992 the foreign currency accounts enjoyed complete exemption from all taxes.

The income tax department has claimed that the appellate tribunal had addressed all the points raised by the department in the appeal filed against the order of the commissioner income tax. The department stated that under the Wealth Tax law the net wealth include all the assets which were located not only in Pakistan but also abroad.

The said money was deposited in Citibank, Rawalpindi till June 30, 1996, when Mr Sherpao was the chief minister of NWFP. Before the dismissal of his government by the NWFP governor, he transferred the money to Switzerland.

The said wealth tax was imposed by the Assistant Commissioner Income Tax on Feb 23, 1999, after Mr Sherpao conceded in a press conference on Dec 25, 1998, that he possessed foreign currency account in Switzerland.

The government had claimed that the account was first maintained in the country and the foreign currency was later transferred abroad in 1996 through State Bank of Pakistan Regulations.

The wealth tax assessment officer imposed the tax for the years 1996-97 and 1997-98, stating that the foreign currency accounts were not exempted from wealth tax.

He maintained that the said foreign currency was not declared by Mr Sherpao while declaring his wealth.

Another writ petition of Mr Sherpao, seeking exemption from payment of custom duty to the tune of Rs10 million on import of a Mercedes car, has also been pending before the high court. The court has already stayed the recovery of that amount from mr Sherpao.