in

GIDC Payments Will Now be Made in 60 Installments Instead of 24

As per the latest news reports, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has issued the decision that Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) sum will now be payable in 60 installments instead of the previously determined 24 installments.

A three-judge SC bench consisting of Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Faisal Arab, and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah had taken up the review petitions moved by different industries with a plea to revisit the court’s earlier decision on GIDC. By a majority of two to one, the Supreme Court, on Monday, rejected a set of petitions seeking review of its verdict announced on August 13, 2020.

‘GIDC’ has been thrown around the news quite frequently, lately, but most people are still not clear as to what does this GIDC entails and what is happening amidst the plethora of news talking about the government, Supreme Court judgment, and the industrial consumers of LNG as well as fertilizer companies. For the benefit of our readers, ProPakistani decided to provide a summarized version of the entire fiasco, highlighting important details of the timeline of GIDC law and the related controversy.

It all started in 2011…

The Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) was imposed as a levy by the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) government in 2011 on gas consumers in the industrial sector. The idea was to spend the collected amount on infrastructure development projects, especially those focused on the energy sector.

2013: However, in December 2013 the Peshawar High Court (PHC) declared the levy of GIDC unconstitutional and also ruled that the said money be refunded by the government. The then-government (with Pakistan Muslim League N in power) challenged the decision in the Supreme Court, but PHC’s decision was upheld and GIDC was declared a fee instead of a tax, which thereby declared that since it is not a tax the government had no power to charge it.

2015: Two years later, the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Act, 2015, was made law. This act also re-imposed GIDC. The industrial sector retaliated and also argued that the previously collected amounts were not spent on development projects as was said in the start of the implementation of GIDC.

The fertilizer and compressed natural gas (CNG) companies spearheaded this resistance and took the matter to court. Initially, they were able to obtain a stay order against paying any more GIDC levies.

2019: The current government (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) had previously expressed intention to waive off this amount payable by the companies to the government, which by 2019 amounted to approximately Rs. 400 billion.

The total payable amount was Rs 700 billion initially, out of which Rs. 295 billion had already been collected. The remaining Rs. 405 billion is still payable. In 2019, the PTI government amended the GIDC law through an ordinance, saying that the industrial consumers will only have to pay half of their outstanding dues while the rest would be waived off. However, that ordinance was quickly withdrawn as a result of a huge public outcry as well as a petition filed in the apex court against it.

2020: In August this year, the much-awaited final verdict of the Supreme Court came out, ruling that the remaining GIDC amount was indeed to be paid by the industrial consumers. However, it came with a relief clause that the said amount be paid in 24 installments, amounting to approximately Rs. 20 billion each.

Now: By mid-October, it became clear that even that was not going to happen, since the government was able to collect only Rs. 3.25 billion from the total owed amount of the first installment. The latest update, in this case, has now come in the form of increasing the number of installments from 24 to 60 to enable the collection of the amount, as well as to provide a practical timeline of the collection.

Source from :

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings

    Faf du Plessis Eager to Make His PSL Debut With Peshawar Zalmi

    UBL Presents Approval Letters to its First Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar Customers