KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday set aside the directive of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), which had suspended the sales tax registration of Shell Pakistan over tax fraud.

In a statement, the oil giant, stated that the FBR had allowed the company to respond by April 30 and the tax authorities were clarified that the ‘relevant amount of tax had been paid in full therefore there was no shortfall in the payment of tax’.

But before the stipulated time given to the company to respond, FBR proceeded with the suspension of SPL’s GST which was not justified, it stated.

The FBR suspended the sales tax registration of the company for deliberately committing tax fraud to evade tax.

The order to suspend the registration was issued by the Large Taxpayer Unit after it was concluded that the ‘company has concealed the stock of lubricating oil in Returns filed during the period of Dec-2016 to Feb-2018, which comes to the meaning of tax fraud’.

The notification further stated: “It is noteworthy that the Registered Person continued the fraudulent practice till last Return filed for the month of March 2018, in order to safe guard the Government Revenue, this office immediately order for suspension of Sales Tax Registration of M/s. Shell Pakistan Limited under Section 21(2) of Sales Tax Act, 1990 read with Rule 12 (a) (i) of the Sales Tax Rules 2006 read with SRO SSS (1)/2006 dated 05-06-2006.