FBR freezes PIA’s bank accounts over unpaid taxes

RAWALPINDI: The Federal Board of Revenue has frozen Pakistan Inter­national Airlines’ bank accounts over non-payment of taxes, a PIA spokesman said on Wednesday.

The airline’s management was in contact with the FBR, the spokesman, Abdullah Hafeez Khan, said and hoped that the accounts would be unblocked soon.

He insisted that flight operations and other activities of PIA were continuing as usual despite the blocking of its accounts.

According to sources, PIA owed about Rs2.8 billion to the FBR in taxes. However, the airline claims its dues amount to around Rs1.3bn.

PIA officers reject restructuring

Meanwhile, the PIA officers’ association has rejected the proposed restructuring of the airline and demanded an immediate increase in the salary of all employees.

In a meeting headed by its president Aqeel Siddiqui on Wednesday, the association reviewed the decisions of the PIA’s board of directors and rejected the proposed restructuring of the organisation, it said in a statement.

Safdar Anjum, general secretary of the association, said the meeting had rejected the proposed splitting of the airline into two parts.

The meeting also demanded an urgent increase in PIA employees’ salaries and formed a committee, headed by Mr Anjum, to contact all stakeholders to prepare a future action plan, it said.

The government has formed a committee headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to present a workable solution to restructure the airline.

The committee also comprised Aviation Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Government Effectiveness Jahanzeb Khan and the aviation secretary.