The Federal Tax Ombudsman, Justice Saleem Akhtar, has asked the Peshawar Collector of Sales Tax (Refund) to decide a refund claim within three weeks as no action was taken on the application for more than six months.
The complainant, Amir Rauf, Proprietor of AYS Fridge Co Electronics, Peshawar, submitted that application for refund of Rs 383,000 was given on May 27, 2003, supported with documents ie invoices and sales tax returns.
Since there was no response, the complainant filed a representation on 26.9.2003 but without any result. The department had been evading payment on one pretext or the other.
During hearing, the department did not deny the allegation and offered no comment. The FTO held this was a clear admission of the facts.
The complainant had further pointed out that he had filed all the supportive documents and that he was not informed of any deficiency of documents.
The order reads: There was complete silence on the part of department if any supportive documents were asked for. The department never pleaded that it had required the complainant in writing to submit the requisite documents for processing and deciding the claim.
The order noted that the department's admission proved that the complainant had filed application with relevant documents, which were kept in the file without any action. Maladministration is fully established.
The order added that if the documents filed by the complainant are not available on record, the complainant should file them within three weeks with supportive documents and the claim for refund should be decided within two weeks of the filing of documents.
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