ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) set aside the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) letter dated 14-04-2021 to carry out an inspection of the office of the Commissioner Inland Revenue, Islamabad.
A single bench of Justice Babar Sattar on Monday heard the joint petition of Abdul Waheed Khan, Zulfiqar Ahmed, Commissioner Inland Revenue, AEOI Zone, LTO, Islamabad, Naeem Hassan, Commissioner Inland Revenue, Audit Zone-II, LTO, Islamabad, and Shabana Mumtaz, Commissioner Inland Revenue, Legal Zone, LTO, Islamabad.
The judge after hearing the arguments accepted the writ petition and set aside the FTO letter.
Hafiz Ahsaan Ahmad Khokhar, representing the chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), contended that his client through a letter dated May 3, 2021 had questioned the jurisdiction of the FTO to inspect any office of the field formation of the FBR. He stated that the FTO through its Registrar was informed that as per Section 10(4) of the Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance 2000, if the FTO proposes to conduct an investigation into a matter, the FTO shall issue a notice to the secretary Revenue Division and to the officer against whom allegation have been levelled to seek reply to the allegation contained in the complaint.
Hafiz Ahsan further argued that as per regulation 11(3), the notice calling for reply shall enclose a copy of the complaint or relevant extract of the complaint highlighting the grievance of the complainant, the alleged nature of maladministration and the relief sought by the complainant along with all relevant documents attached with the complaint.
He submitted that the letter of the FTO was devoid of allegations, copy of complaint and relevant documents as mentioned in the FTO Ordinance, neither any notices were endorsed to the officers.
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The requested documents have not been provided to the FBR to-date, while constitution of inspection team has been decided, which is against the spirit of law and may put the officers in disadvantageous position and also makes it impossible to ascertain if the matter falls within jurisdiction, function and powers of the FTO or otherwise, he added.
The counsel submitted that the intent of the legislature regarding the office of the FTO is envisaged in preamble to the FTO Ordinance, which stipulates that the FTO is to diagnose, investigate, redress and rectify any injustice done to a person. However, in the instant case, no injustice to any person has been identified requiring intervention or redressal by the FTO.
The FTO through its Registrar on 14-04-2021 issued the impugned Letter No0033/OM/2021 to the FBR to constitute an inspection team to carry out an inspection of the office of the Commissioner Inland Revenue, Islamabad.
The FTO relied upon the Section 17 of the Establishment of the office of Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance 2000 to carry out an inspection and ordered the FBR to nominate an officer of their department of not less than BS-20/21.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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