KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is reported to have frozen bank accounts of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) for defaulting on payment of Rs7.1 billion Sales Tax.

Sources in FBR said that during a campaign to recover defaulted tax amounts, the board on Wednesday also served notices on several big corporations, including Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

The sources told Dawn that the PSO had been served with several notices for a total defaulted tax amount of over Rs9 billion.

But the PSO expressed its inability to make a lump-sum payment and deposited only Rs100 million in the national exchequer, forcing the FBR to freeze its accounts, the sources said.

Like several other state-run organisations in the energy sector, the PSO is a victim of the circular debt which has swelled to over Rs250 billion.

The sources said that PIA which was a defaulter of Rs9 billion to Rs10 billion in taxes had also been served with recovery notices.

Without naming another big corporation which was in default on tax, the sources said it had paid Rs300 million on Wednesday and signed an agreement to pay the remaining amount on Thursday.