PESHAWAR, Oct 17: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday issued a stay order against the recovery of gas infrastructure development cess (GIDC) from around a dozen CNG stations, which claim the levy of the cess is illegal and unconstitutional.

A bench comprising Justice Miftauddin Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth issued the order after preliminary hearing into two petitions filed by CNG stations from Peshawar and Malakand region. It also admitted the petitions for regular hearing. According to the bench, the stay order will remain in effect until the next order.

The schedule for the next hearing will be announced later. The petitioners have also challenged the GIDC Act 2011, saying its passage by the National Assembly as a money bill was unconstitutional.

The bench also put on notice respondents, including the federation of Pakistan through secretary ministry of petroleum and natural resources; Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) through chief executive, SNGPL through general manager and Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) through chairman.

The GIDC Act 2011 was passed by the National Assembly last year with the objective to carry out Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project, LNG import project and LPG supply enhancement project.

The court had earlier stayed the recovery of the cess from some industrial units of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Advocate Ishtiaq Ahmad appeared for the petitioners and contended that prior to the enactment of the GIDC Act cess at the rate of 141Rs per MMBTU (million metric British thermal Unit was imposed, but now under the controversial law the cess had been enhanced up to Rs263 per MMBTU.

He said the levy of infrastructure cess was beyond the legislative competency of the federation and parliament. He also said the passage of GIDC Act, 2011 as a Money Bill was something that was fiercely objected to by the Senate and was declared as an ultra-constitutional bypass by the government. According to him, the relevant Senate standing committee after citing a few court orders left the matter for a future litigation indicating that the judiciary can overrule the certification by the National Assembly speaker of the Act 2011 as ‘Money Bill’. The petitioners stated that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province produced more than 370 MMCFD whereas its average consumption was around 150 MMCFD.