Revenue can be increased through fair tax administration: FTO

Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr. Shoaib Suddle has said that revenue collection can be increased through a good and fair tax administration and giving confidence to taxpayers. He was addressing the officers of Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU), Regional Tax Offices and Customs Collectorate during his visit to the Regional Tax Office, Lahore here on Saturday.
Addressing the participants, the Federal Tax Ombudsman said that though the FTO Office had to look into the issues of maladministration, it was primarily the responsibility of the officers of the department to deal with the incidence of maladministration.
The FTO's role is to provide support and complement this job. "The role of tax collection is a very fundamental function of the state, therefore, the officers of the department should work hard to collect due taxes as the country is facing critical times," he added.
He made it clear that the office of FTO was there not to harass the Tax Department but to provide support to them in redressing genuine grievances of the taxpayers. The Federal Tax Ombudsman said that maladministration was a colonial tradition adopted by the foreign rulers to subjugate the natives.
He stated that through a good and fair tax administration the revenue collection could be increased significantly by boosting the confidence of the taxpayers. He also highlighted his achievements after his appointment as Federal Tax Ombudsman on June 03, 2009. He informed that all the pending claims pertaining to year 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009 were speedily liquidated with a result that stuck up refunds amounting to Rs 6 billion were issued to the taxpayers.
Currently there is no case, which is pending for more than three months, he said and added that the FTO office is being automated and a full functional web portal has already been launched. Soon the taxpayers will be able to file their complaints online, he concluded. In the end Ansar Javed, Chief Commissioner, Regional Tax Office, Lahore thanked the Ombudsman for visiting the RTO.