PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan on Friday observed that the country was heading for a bloody revolution as the poor people felt suffocated.
“We’re heading for a bloody revolution as the atmosphere is suffocating for the poor, while the rich, who have not been brought to the tax net, are enjoying life,” he observed during a hearing into a local trader’s bail petition.
The chief justice, who formed a single-member bench, observed that tax collectors were not willing to catch big fish evading payment of taxes.
“In several cases of tax evasion, we detected filthy rich people but the income tax officials don’t take interest in bringing them to the tax net,” he said.
Justice Dost Mohammad expressed displeasure over the failure of the Federal Board of Revenue’s Inland Revenue Wing in broadening the tax net by taxing the rich people and directed the federal government to take action against tax collectors over dereliction of duty.
The hearing was conducted into the bail petition of pharmaceutical trader Anees Iqbal, who was arrested after his cheque of Rs3.4 million issued to a money lender bounced over lack of money in his bank account.
The petitioner, who claimed that he had secured a loan of Rs100 million from businessman Haji Sarfraz at 30 per cent interest rate, was charged under Section 489 of Pakistan Penal Code.
At the start of the hearing, the chief justice asked if the money lender in question had been paying income tax.
The bench directed additional advocate general Neelum Khan to convey it to the chief commissioner of Inland Revenue that the court wants him to send a team of senior officials to provide information about the income tax paid by the said money lender.Later, when none of the officials showed up, the chief justice observed that it showed the level of poor performance of the revenue department from top to bottom.
He observed that its order should be sent to the prime minister’s principal secretary and the finance secretary to place it before the finance minister so that he could know about the performance of the revenue department.
Justice Dost Mohammad observed that then poor people had been taxed, surcharge on electricity bills and natural gas prices had been regularly increasing.
He added that during the recent budget, the tax slab had been raised for the salaried class but the people having wealth had been left out.
The chief justice observed that when the courts made efforts to point out those evading taxes, even then tax collectors did not take interest.
The bench later adjourned the hearing until July 19 directing the officials of the FBR Inland Revenue Wing to show up on the day.