Mari releases bonus shares after tax payment verification

October 29, 2024 (MLN): Mari Petroleum Company Limited (PSX: MARI) has released the withheld bonus shares of shareholders that had deposited their withholding tax on bonus shares (WHT) with the company, it said in a stock filing on Tuesday.

"We would like to inform that most of our valued shareholders have deposited their WHT with the company which has been deposited with the exchequer forthwith as required.

"After updating our records w.r.t tax collected against the tax liability for each shareholder, the withheld bonus shares of these shareholders have been released," reads the notice.

Further, the lien on bonus shares was marked on the direction of the Honourable Islamabad High Court (IHC) and will be removed with the permission of the Honourable IHC, it said.

There are certain shareholders who have deposited the tax in the company's bank account but so far have not shared their details (name, folio number, payment proof) with the company.

The company said this is posing a challenge to identify and credit WHT receipt against their WHT liability and releasing their withheld bonus shares.

The shareholders who have deposited WHT, but have not provided their details may not be able to receive their withheld bonus shares till the time their details have been received and updated in the system, it added.

The company has requested all such shareholders to share the requisite details.

In accordance with the provisions of Section 236Z of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 the company is selling the withheld bonus shares of those shareholders who have not deposited the applicable WHT, in the ready market at PSX at the prevailing market price.

The total proceeds from the sale of such shares will be averaged out for all the sold shares and WHT shall be accordingly deposited with the exchequer, it said.

In case the WHT liability is not fully discharged by the sale of withheld shares then the lienmarked shares will also be sold to the extent of the remaining tax liability with the permission of the honourable IHC.

On the other hand, if the value of the withheld bonus shares is more than the tax liability, only the number of bonus shares required to recover the outstanding tax liability will be disposed off while the remaining bonus shares will be credited to the respective shareholders.

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