Islamabad, September 4, 2019: The Prime Minister house on Wednesday clarified the case of Waiver of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC).
The total amount stuck in the GIDC litigations from January 2012 till December 2018 is about Rs 417 billion. In the first round of litigations, the Supreme Court lease to annual the GIDC statute. The Federal governments review petitions was also dismissed by Supreme Court.
Thereafter fresh legislations were brought about, which are presently under the challenge before the provisional high courts and a set of appeals is also pending in the Supreme Court.
In the above back drop, and ordinance was issued with a view to recover 50 percent of the stuck revenue by way of an out of court settlement after consultation with the industry. However, in view of the recent controversy.
The Prime Minister, in the interest of transparency and good governance, has decided to withdraw the state ordinance and direct the attorney general to move an application for urgent hiring in the Supreme Court, so that the matter is decided at the earliest, strictly in accordance with the law and the constitution.
However, the prime minister wishes to inform the nation that going to the court carries a risk because the decision could go either way.
This means that the government could get the whole amount and could lose it all and possibly forgo any prospectus of future revenue collections under this head.
Also on top on this, the government could be saddled with the burden of administering refunds of approximately Rs 295 billion of the principal amount.
