KARACHI, Nov 1: The Supreme Court dismissed on Friday a cement factory’s plea against enhancement of octroi rates payable by it.
Thatta Cement Company submitted in its petition for leave to appeal against a Sindh High Court judgment that the impugned rates were notified by the administrator of the Makli Union Council, who was not an elected representative of the people and was, therefore, devoid of any authority to impose taxes or revise their rates. The octroi duty paid by it accounted for 90 per cent of the entire octroi revenue of the union council and it should have been issued individual notice inviting objections before any increase. A public notice was not sufficient because other tax-payers paid only 10 per cent of the octroi collection.
The company also submitted that other cement manufacturing concerns situated in the territorial limits of other union councils were being charged octroi at a lower rate, though they sold their product at the same price.
The enhanced octroi rate put an additional burden on the Thatta factory and rendered it less profitable. The enhanced rates amounted to discrimination, which was barred by Article 25 of the Constitution. The octroi tax, the cement company further submitted, could not be imposed on “ad valorem” basis and be calculated on the weightage of goods as required by Rule 46 of the West Pakistan Municipal Committee (Octroi) Rules, 1964.
Contesting the petition and defending the SHC judgment, additional advocate-general Qazi Khalid Ali submitted that the points urged before the Supreme Court had never been raised earlier. Even the notification enhancing the rates was not specifically questioned in the proceedings before the high court. He argued that the duty was validly imposed and that the impugned judgment did not suffer from any infirmity. There was no discrimination involved as no factory situated in the Makli union council area was being shown any favour and charged less, the AAG submitted.
A Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices Hamid Ali Mirza and Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, held that the petitioner had only challenged the competence of the unelected UC administrator before the high court. New points had been agitated only in appeal. The administrator was appointed till the election of a new chairman but was fully empowered to impose taxes. He was succeeded by an elected chairman, who did not reverse his decision. A new case could not be allowed to be set up in a petition for leave to appeal against a high court judgment, the bench observed.
SHC NOTICE: A Sindh High Court division bench, comprising Justices Mohammad Roshan Essani and Gulzar Ahmed, meanwhile, issued preadmission notices for an unspecified date to the provincial chief secretary, the health secretary, the executive district and accounts officers of Thatta in a petition moved by a doctor against his removal as deputy superintendent of a rural health centre.
Dr Liaquat Ali Khowaja said in his petition filed through Advocate Suleiman Habibullah that he was assigned to co-ordinate the visit of a WHO team on polio eradication. While he was in a meeting with the WHO team, he received a message from the EDO that he should immediately proceed to the rain-affected areas for emergency duty.
He informed the EDO that he would visit the areas after the meeting.
He received an order instantly that he had been relieved of his charge at the rural health centre. He should report to the provincial health secretary for further orders.