Govt weighs options to recover Rs447bn Gas Infrastructure Development Cess

The government on Monday decided to use all the administrative and legal resources to recover Rs447 billion Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) from commercial and industrial entities which had blocked due payments through high courts despite standing orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan for recoveries. The decision was taken at a GIDC meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha, Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Masood Malik, SAPM on Finance Tariq Bajwa, Secretary Finance, Deputy Attorney General and managing director of OGDCL and representatives of SNGPL, SSGCL and PPL attended. The meeting was told about the amounts outstanding against various entities and discussed GIDC Act and Supreme Court’s order. It was reported that about Rs447.5bn was still outstanding and needed to be recovered but 3,194 petitions in various high courts were hampering the recovery of about Rs420bn. It was noted that the Supreme Court in its decision of August 2020 while dismissing all appeals into the GIDC had very clearly ordered recovery of all GIDC accrued by 2020-21 and then suspended future GIDC till such time cess was utilised including collected at the time and due but not yet collected till then was recovered.