As per section 122 (5A), "the commissioner may amend, or further amend, an assessment order, if he considers that the assessment order is erroneous in so far it is prejudicial to the interest of revenue". "No assessment shall be amended, or further amended, under this section unless the taxpayer has been provided with an opportunity of being heard."
They said the autonomous bodies, which were earlier tax exempted, have now come in tax regime and are liable to pay income tax since FY08. Therefore, the department has created the tax demand against PQA, Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Defence Housing Authority (DHA), etc, under section 49(4), they added.
According to the section, "the exemption under this section shall not be available in the case of corporation, company, a regulatory authority, a development authority, other body or institution established by or under a Federal law or a Provincial law or an existing law or a corporation, company, a regulatory authority, a development authority or other body or institution set up, owned and controlled, either directly or indirectly, by the Federal Government or a Provincial Government, regardless of the ultimate destination of such income as laid down in Article 165A of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan".
Sources said that RTO, Karachi, has also approached these authorities for the payment of advance tax, pending since the amendment was made in this regard. They said that tax demand of around Rs 300 million was raised against KPT, out of that, the Trust has adjusted some Rs 100 million refund amount in this account. Similarly, the PQA is also intending to execute same exercise to payoff its tax liability, they said.