After the intervention of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), K-Electric has withdrawn the advance income tax wrongly charged on the electricity bill of a Karachi-based trust.
According to the order issued by the FTO office on Monday, the Manager of Taxation K-Electric realizing the inadvertent mistake on the part of K-Electric, during the hearing submitted a revised electricity bill of Masjid Al-Noor (Trust) for the month of October 2023 whereby the imposition of advance income tax was reversed. Since the issue was resolved mitigating the grievances of the complainant, therefore, the complaint is closed and file is consigned to record, FTO order added.
Briefly, Masjid Al Noor (Trust) in Nazimabad, Karachi received electricity bill for the month of October 2023 with advance income tax imposed under section 235 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
It was observed that advance income tax under section 235 of the Ordinance has been charged on monthly electricity bill for October 2023 all of a sudden on a place of worship ‘Masjid Al-Noor’. Section 235 of the Ordinance provides a mechanism of advance income tax collection on the amount of the monthly electricity bill.
On the contrary, the advance income tax under section 235 of the Ordinance is charged on the total amount of the electricity bill as per the provision of section 235 of the Ordinance on commercial or industrial, or domestic consumers.
The Mosque is not covered under any of these three kinds of consumers, therefore charging income tax by K-Electric, Karachi through monthly electricity bill on a mosque was not in accordance with the provisions of income Tax Ordinance 2001, FTO order added.
Shame that issue couldn’t be resolved at KE office and Tax Ombudsman had to be involved to get justice.