According to a Business Recorder exclusive the Deputy Attorney General of Pakistan (Karachi) has written a letter to the Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) lamenting the 'casual attitude' of Departmental Representatives (DRs) while pleading cases in the courts.
The letter adds that the Ministry of Law and Justice has issued directions that no officer below BPS-17 may appear before a court nor sign documents on behalf of any government entity. However, the letter accuses the Collectorates of Appraisement, Preventive, Model Customs Collectorates, Pakistan Customs Computerised System, DIT, Valuation, Sales Tax, and Central Excise of paying no heed to these instructions.
The amount pending the outcome of ongoing litigation is massive: 131 billion rupees and the number of pending cases are in excess of 6,000. This was revealed in October 2010, to the Public Accounts Committee under the chairmanship of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan by the then FBR Chairman, Sohail Ahmed, during the review of the FBR audit report for the year 2008-09. This amount is not to be scoffed at as it is almost 15 percent of Pakistan's overall fiscal deficit of 851 billion rupees as envisaged in the budget for fiscal year 2011-12 and over 30 percent of our reliance on total external resources for the current year as per the budgetary documents.
A DR, a career tax officer, represents the FBR in the first stage of the appeal process subsequent to an assessee's challenge. The next stage in the appeal process is heard by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal where a DR may once again represent the FBR. However, in instances where the amount in question is large or where there are constitutional principles of taxation involved the department engages outside counsel through the Ministry of Law. The outside counsel is briefed on the case by the DR. Thus a DR is a critical pillar of any FBR drive to increase revenue and hence he/she must be carefully selected.
At present, a DR is generally regarded as a penalty posting and he/she does not enjoy the unofficial perks that an equivalent appointment in the field offers. Thus there is an urgent need to change this mindset. It is, therefore, proposed that as a first step in the right direction the FBR takes a policy decision not to appoint any one under grade 19 as DR. This would ensure that all cases would be pursued in an intelligent and focused manner.
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