ISLAMABAD: The Advisory Committee of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) on Thursday identified three key maladministration in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) including corruption in tax administration, illegal notices to taxpayers and delay in grant of admissible refunds.
The meeting of Advisory Committee to the Federal Tax Ombudsman was held at the office of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) here on Thursday to discuss measures to improve taxpayers’ facilitation through early redressal of issues raised by trade, public at large. The meeting was chaired by Federal Tax Ombudsman, Dr Asif Mahmood Jah (Hilal-i-Imtiaz) (Sitara-i-Imtiaz).
Dr Arsaln Subuctageen Advisor Customs, FTO Secretariat briefed about agenda of meeting .While addressing the meeting, the FTO explained the mandate and functions of the Advisory Committee. Job description book of the office of FTO was also formally launched by Tax Ombudsman, refund cheques have also been distributed to the complainants of a car company case.
The FTO stated that in a number of complaints, the issues raised by the complainants, were resolved on telephonic discussion or by forwarding SMS to the relevant tax functionaries under the FBR, by exercising the powers under Section 33 of the FTO Ordinance, 2000.
As in one of the major complaint of overseas Pakistani Dr Muhammad Naveed Khan, who is working as a medical doctor in Saudi Arabia since 2010, decided to take up the tax maladministration case to the FTO. Dr Naveed is a resident Pakistani despite of the fact that he was residing in Saudi Arabia and was a non-resident. He provided the FBR department proof of him being employed in Saudi Arabia since 2010 and that he never stayed in Pakistan for a period beyond the limit that could make him a “resident” under the statute. He also provided the FBR department proofs of banking channel remittances received in TY-2016 and onwards.
The department kept sending notices of demand, repeatedly, to the family of Dr Naveed and, on receipt of the demand notice of 7.5 million rupees, the mother of Dr Naveed suffered cardiac arrest, eventually leading to her death. Deliberately ignoring the rules, regulations and procedure and willful negligence on part of the concerned commissioner of the FBR department.
The FTO directed the chief commissioner-IR and commissioner-IR, Sargodha to conduct a departmental review of the facts of the complaint and rectify any wrong done to the complainant, for the purpose of correction in notices plus the redressal of maladministration, which was not followed by the FBR department. The FTO made the concerned officers of the FBR department, namely Shakeel Ahmad Shakeel (CIR-Sargodha), Azmat Hayat Ranjha (CIR-Sargodha) apologize to Dr Naveed for harsh treatment and maladministration.
He also informed that the recommendations has been issued to the FBR for resolution of refund related issues raised by the members of Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the same were complied with by the FBR. He further added that the internees have also been appointed who are performing their duties well in FTO Law wing, for door-to-door visit to the taxpayers for their awareness of the FTO Office and for facilitation at door step.
He stated that after joining the office as FTO, the average number of complaints’ registration has gradually increased within two years which shows the confidence of the taxpayers has increased on the Office of FTO Secretariat. He expressed that the “suggestions and recommendations to improve tax system and resolution of taxpayers’ grievances, provided by the Members of the Committee, will be warmly welcomed, as this Office is the only institution, who provides cost free, transparent justice in a very short period of time”.
“We need to create an impact of the office of FTO”, so that the ultimate number of complaints are reduced”, Tax Ombudsman added.
The advisory committee members lauded the performance of the FTO, apprised tax related queries and gave an emphasis to share FTO’s publications /latest decisions /own motion cases with the members of Advisory committee via “Whatsapp Group” to promote tax awareness. Internes also took part in the proceedings and emphasized need form focusing on youth in outreach programme as they are the potential taxpayers. Muhammad Ahmed, former president ICCI; Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, President Frontier Customs Agents Association; President Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry; Muhammad Yasin Tahir former Sr Advisor FTO; Muhammad Ramzan Bhatti, former Senior Advisor FTO; Aneel Peter, Regional Committee member of ICAP; Badar Haroon, Senior Vice Chairman; Dr Hassan Sarosh Akram, CEO quality poultry breeder and team of the FTO advisors attended the meeting and gave proposals to improve the tax administration including measures to minimize the delays in grant of refunds, corruption by tax Administration and stoppage of undue notices.
The participants appreciated the FTO’s forum for providing a listening ear to the complainants.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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