SUGAR MILLS TAXED RS 469 BILLION, FBR PREPARES TAX DEMANDS OF 81 INCLUDING 20 MILLS OF KEY POLITICIANS, MOST OWNERS GO TO COURT

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) has prepared a tax demand of Rs 469 billion from 81 sugar mills. The 20 sugar mills belong to politicians affiliated with PTI and PML-N.

A large number of sugar mill owners have approached the courts while PTI leader Jahangir Tareen said that no tax demand has been prepared against their mills.

Special tax audit teams of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have prepared the said tax demand. These special audit teams have conducted a forensic audit of sugar mills after months of practice.

An FBR audit team, after reviewing the 2015-2019 records of Jahangir Tareen-owned JWD Sugar Mills and 5 other mills, levied a tax of about Rs. 7 billion. However, demand notices have not been sent to them yet. Further increase in tax value is possible once the audit team's process is completed.

The sugar mills owned by the families of Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Makhdoom Hashim Jahan Bakht and Makhdoom Umar Shehryar in the Rahim Yar Khan Group has a tax demand of Rs. 9 billion over a period of four years. He was also not sent tax notices as the matter was pending in court. The tax demand on the Sharif family-owned Chaudhry and Ramzan Sugar Mills is worth Rs 8 billion.

In May 2020, the SIC submitted a final report to the Prime Minister recommending that the FBR conduct a comprehensive tax audit of all sugar mills over the past five years.

The FBR team has won Rs 25 billion against Fatima Sugar Mill, Rs 18 billion against Ashraf Mills, Rs 6 billion against Abdullah Mills, Rs 4 billion against Huda Mills, Rs 7 billion against Kashmir Mills and Rasool Nawaz Mills. 3 billion against Haseeb Waqas Mills, 4 billion against Ittefaq Sugar Mills, 5 billion against Patoki Mills, 2 billion against Thal Industries, 1.4 billion against Noon Mills, two against Shakargarh. Tax demands of Rs 470 million against SGM, Rs 147 million against Hussain Mills, Rs 29 million against TMK, and Rs 30 million against Vanguard were prepared.

According to audit teams, Consolidated, Ghotki, Noori, Southern, Sindhri, Najma, Pir Jogoth, and SJ Sugar Mills are not taxable. On the other hand, Iskander M. Khan, President of, Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, said in his response that the FBR team was playing in the gallery.

He termed the tax demand notices as fake and said that FBR was misleading Prime Minister Imran Khan. According to Jahangir Tareen, no tax demand has been prepared against his mills while full cooperation is being extended to the FBR in providing the required details.

He further said that the Commissioner has the power to select the audit only under the provisions of the Ordinance, the decisions of the High Court and the law. The commissioners did not meet the basic requirements. Many sugar mills have challenged the action of the commissioners in the Lahore High Court, which has granted interim relief.