LAHORE: Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday gave interim relief to another 16 petitioners by granting a stay against the imposition of luxury tax on imported cars.
The judge has fixed December 12 for further hearing of the petitions, along with a number of identical petitions which are already pending before the court.
The petitioners, including M/s Toyota, Riaz Bottlers and Hillside Metal, have challenged the imposition of luxury tax on imported cars of 2000CC and above, and the cars registered after June 2005 vide Punjab Finance Act, 2008. The petitioners submitted that the Punjab government under Section 6 of the Punjab Finance Act, 2008 had imposed luxury tax on imported cars that were registered after June 30, 2005. They pointed out that they had paid the tax at the rate of 2 percent at the time of registration of their cars.
They said that luxury cars like Mercedes Benz and BMW had been exempted from the luxury tax, which was sheer discrimination. They said that definition of ‘luxury’ should not be determined on the basis of CC engine fixed in a car, adding that it should be ascertained by the price and facilities available in that car. The petitioners said as they had already paid tax, therefore, Section 6 was repugnant to the constitution. They prayed the court to declare the imposition of tax as illegal.