Multan Tax Bar Association (MTBA) has strongly reacted to a news item appearing in a section of the press with reference to Naeem Shah, President, All Pakistan Tax Bar Association (APTBA), regarding his remarks against Member CBR (Direct Taxes), Vakil Ahmed Khan, for his interview to a TV channel in which he alleged that tax practitioners and chartered accounts embezzle 24 percent of the revenue.
A press release issued by the MTBA here on Saturday said that the issue was taken up and discussed with all representatives/nominees of MTBA and various other tax bars of the country who attended the extraordinary general meeting of APTBA held in Islamabad on March 6, 2004.
The participants confirmed that in one of the sessions, a participant pointed out that Vakil Ahmed Khan, on a TV channel, alleged that 24 percent of the revenue of the country was being embezzled by tax practitioners, tax advisers and chartered accountants.
The release clarified that this issue was only discussed in the meeting and various proposals including taking action on these remarks after getting copy of the programme from that channel and having a meeting with Vakil Ahmed Khan, were made by the participants.
However, the matter relating to condemning Vakil's remarks, call for strike etc as mentioned in Naeem Shah's statement were not resolved.
All other contents of the statement relating to poor performance of the CBR, reduction in number of returns filed, providing incorrect data to the nation by CBR through the media, adverse effects of tax survey and power of the bureaucracy affecting the taxation matters were not even taken up in the said meeting.
So, the matters which were not taken up in the meeting could not be said to have been resolved.
The MTBA release further said that immediately after the general meeting the participants of the meeting contacted Vakil Ahmed Khan who denied having discussed about tax advisers on that channel and stated that as a matter of fact it was another channel on which on a question, about the loss of revenue, he referred to the contents of a report of Shahid Hussain, published two years back, based on the facts, that loss of revenue of Rs 100 is being shared: 68 percent by taxpayers, 24 percent by intermediaries and 8 percent by the tax department.
It added that all this discussion with Vakil Ahmed Khan was immediately conveyed to Naeem Shah, President of APTBA. It further pointed out that not only most of the points of the press statement were not discussed in the meeting but also matters relating to the action against the CBR member was not resolved as being premature and without the fact.
Therefore, the statement given by Naeem Shah is against the facts, the release concluded.
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