KARACHI: The national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been stopped from using recently acquired new plane for flight operation due to a tax dispute with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
A dispute emerged between PIA and FBR over the payment of duty on recently acquired new planes. The tax dispute has been causing a massive financial loss worth millions of dollars to the national airline.
PIA had acquired four Airbus A-320 aircraft through tenders and the first plane landed in Islamabad on April 29.
The revenue institution imposed a sales tax worth Rs410 million on the national airline for acquiring the plane on lease.
The PIA management is facing difficulties with a lump-sum payment of the massive tax to the FBR as the airline is already paying $0.5 million in lease money for each aircraft.
The airline will be granted permission for using the recently acquired aircraft for the flight operation after the sales tax payment.
