FBR recovers Rs.23 billion from banks as windfall tax after court ruling

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) recovered Rs23 billion from 16 major banks in a single day on February 21, 2025, following a Sindh High Court (SHC) ruling upholding a windfall tax, media reported on Sunday.

As per the reports, this major recovery operation was the result of teamwork in which the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor played an active role.

The attorney general of Pakistan, the FBR chairman, and a dedicated legal team contributed to a decisive shift in the government’s strategy to tax the elite and dismantle the entrenched culture of legal manipulation that has long protected powerful corporate interests, the reports said.

The source informed that the staggering sum was recovered on February 21, 2025, just a day after the Sindh High Court’s Constitutional Bench ruled in favor of the government by dismissing financial sector petitions against the windfall tax imposed under Section 99D of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.