Case of changing status of taxpayer: IHC issues notice to CIR at LTO Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued a notice to Commissioner Inland Revenue (CIR), Large Taxpayer Office (LTO) Islamabad, to submit inquiry report, as ordered by Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue (ATIR), on allegedly changing Active Taxpayer Status of a taxpayer to deny refund.

It is reliably learnt that a constitutional petition has been moved in IHC through Lahore based Advocate Waheed Shahzad Butt against Chairman FBR, CIR & DCIR, Enforcement-LTO, Islamabad and Member Information Technology, FBR Islamabad. The petition was filed by a taxpayer seeking income tax refunds from LTO Islamabad and implementation of landmark order issued by ATIR to highlight the role of some LTO tax employees in maladministration, who changed ATL status of taxpayer.

Petitioner mentioned that LTO CIR is not implementing the order passed by the ATIR wherein it was directed to inquire the matter of mal-administration of justice and apparent cheating on FBR’s electronic system “IRIS” to play with ATL status through fake notices under Section 120(3) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

IHC order states: “The petitioner is aggrieved by failure of the respondents to give effect to the order of the learned Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue, Islamabad dated 04.10.2021. The learned counsel for the petitioner states that in order to frustrate issuance of refund the petitioner was placed on malafide basis on the In-Active Taxpayer List in order to create a ground to deny the refund. He submits that the learned Tribunal through the aforementioned order declared that the return filed by the petitioner was valid and that the order of the CIR (Appeals), Islamabad, declaring a return to be invalid was illegal and was annulled. He states that the learned Tribunal had further ordered CIR LTO Islamabad to conduct an inquiry in relation to five questions framed by the learned Tribunal to determine whether the error entered into by the CIR was due to technical malfunctioning of the system or human indulgence. He states that despite the passage of six months the inquiry has not been completed and no report has been submitted. He states that as of today the status of the petitioner is still In-Active on the IRIS portal.

Let notices be issued to the respondents for 04.08.2022. Respondent departments will file report and para-wise comments within a period of two weeks.

Commissioner IR along with the report and para-wise comments will also file the report of the inquiry that he was directed to undertake by the Tribunal through order dated 04.10.2021. In the event that the report of the inquiry ordered to be conducted by the Tribunal is not filed, the Commissioner IR will appear in person before this Court on the next date of hearing, IHC order added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022