ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain approved on Friday the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) Bill-2015.

The president’s spokesperson said: “On a summary initiated by Senate secretariat, the president has approved the prime minister’s advice and signed/accorded his assent to Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) Bill-2015).”

The bill will enable the government to have an access to about Rs100 billion lying in its account under the head of the GIDC.

Also read: Controversial GIDC move

The government had set a target of Rs145bn GIDC collection for the current financial year.

The cess was initially announced by the PPP government in 2011, but it was challenged in courts and the Supreme Court had ruled that such cess could not be collected through the Finance Bill.

The PML-N government imposed the tax through an ordinance in September last year.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2015

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