KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has nullified the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) office order regarding the monitoring of a private business entity, declaring it legally defective. The ruling came during a hearing where a private enterprise challenged the FBR’s practices, stating that tax officials were unlawfully deployed at their premises following an illegal raid. In response, the FBR’s counsel argued that the Sales Tax Act grants them the authority to deploy officers for monitoring, claiming they are not legally obligated to disclose the specific reasons or duration of such actions.
However, the Sindh High Court firmly rejected the FBR’s stance, asserting that the revenue board’s authority is neither absolute nor unrestricted, and that the FBR must operate strictly within predefined statutory conditions. The bench ruled that the Sales Tax Act clearly subjects officer deployment to specific terms and conditions, emphasizing that monitoring must be a time-bound measure aimed solely at preventing tax evasion. Ultimately, because the FBR failed to provide a satisfactory justification regarding the purpose and duration of the deployment, the court struck down the order, noting that legal safeguards exist precisely to prevent the misuse of such regulatory powers.
