Why advance income tax on pvt automobiles?

The High Court yesterday questioned the legality of the government's action to collect advance income tax (AIT) from private cars, jeeps and microbuses.

The court issued a rule asking the government to explain in four weeks why its gazette notifications of 2009 and 2012 to impose AIT on these vehicles should not be declared illegal.

The HC bench of Justice Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice JN Deb Choudhury came up with the rule after hearing a writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Abul Kashem.

The petition said private cars, jeeps and microbuses are used for private purposes, not for earning money, so imposing AIT on them is illegal.  

Secretaries to the ministries of finance and law and chairman of the Board of Revenue have been made respondents to the rule, petitioner's lawyer Masud Ahmed Sayeed told The Daily Star.

Kashem said the finance ministry issued a gazette notification imposing AIT on the vehicles in 2009 and it issued another notification in 2012 increasing the AITs.