The officials from the largest revenue collection arm of Federal Board of Revenue went to the SAI head office to seal the premises as the airline failed to deposit Rs 910 million into national exchequer by due date June 15, 2018 despite the fact it had collected said amount in the head of FED on international and domestic tickets during the months of April and May.
After more than 3 hours deliberations, the airline agreed to pay FED and presented two cheques of the amount to the tax officials. The tax department attached all bank accounts of the airline (SAI) on May 25, 2018 to recover the FED payment for the month of April and later de-attached the same after negotiations.
Meanwhile, SAI spokesman said FBR put pressure on the airline for tax recovery due to financial year closure and kept refusing to accept FED payments in cheques. Now the board has finally received SAI's cheques after negotiations, he said, explaining that the issue had been surfaced due to Eid holidays. He said SAI regular operations were on and flight schedule was normal. "We are a law-abiding corporate entity and are aware of our duties and responsibilities," he said.