Law:

Section:

Legislation, vires of--- ----Fiscal statute enacted by Parliament---To declare a statute promulgated by Parliament under the Constitution to be void was a very serious matter---Such declaration may be given on the ground of incompetence of Parliament to enact the law or for a violation of Fundamental Rights by the enacted law---Declaration given solely on the ground of incorrect arithmetical calculation, lack of rational basis or reasonableness of the statute was devoid of legal foundation---Such grounds, if at all, were criteria for testing the validity of executive action and not legislative measures. THIS ORDER PASSED BY: UMAR ATA BANDIAL, J.--- The impugned judgment of the learned High Court has annulled the Table of tax rates introduced by the Finance Act, 2012 in the Income Tax Ordinance under Clause (1A) of Division-1 of Part-1 of the First Schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 on the ground that the 6th slab of taxable income for Rs.2.5/- million and above should be charged to a rate of tax amounting to Rs.420,000 + 20% of the amount exceeding Rs.2.5/- million. The rationale for the declaration of law given against the afore-noted statutory provision is that it lacks certainty, is based on incorrect arithmetical calculation and lacks rationale basis and reasonableness. 2. Learned counsel for the appellant has submitted that the said grounds do not constitute a valid basis for annulling a statute promulgated by Parliament. He has referred to Government of Pakistan v. Muhammad Ashraf (PLD 1993 SC 176 at page 186) to submit that a tax which is confiscatory is considered to be violative of the fundamental rights and on that ground in the afore-noted precedent case the matter was remanded to the High Court for fresh determination on the facts of the case. None of the grounds taken by the learned High Court in the impugned judgment demonstrate a case of confiscatory taxation. He has submitted to us a Table of the tax slabs enforced by the Finance Act, 2012 for the tax year 2013 which is reproduced below: TAX SLABS FOR SALARIED INDIVIDUALS FINANCE ACT, 2012 SLAB 1 2 3 4 5 6 Taxable Income Does not Exceeds 400,000 Exceeds 400,000 but does not exceed…

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