The imposition of a super tax on the ultra-rich by the government has been deferred until the tax year 2023.
This was directed on Thursday in a verdict issued by a two-member bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) comprising Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar and Justice Agha Faisal while hearing petitions filed by some 100 applicants against the new law.
The short order issued by the SHC on Thursday noted that the petitioners had contested the constitutionality of imposing a super tax under Section 4C of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, introduced through the Finance Act 2022, over past and closed transactions.
The petitioners contended that the imposition of such a tax was “discriminatory; confiscatory; demonstrably devoid of any intelligible differentia having rational nexus with the object of classification; and amounts to impermissible double taxation,” the order read.
The court allowed the petitions to the extent of Section 4-C of the law and deferred its application until the tax year 2023.
