ATIR’s landmark order: Senior taxmen face FBR law director’s action

ISLAMABAD: The Director Law of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Wednesday initiated extreme action against senior tax officials based on a landmark order issued by the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue (ATIR) Islamabad. The order highlighted the poor quality of assessments, which not only erodes taxpayer confidence but also negatively impacts the FBR's performance.

In this regard, Director Law and written a letter to FBR Chairman on Wednesday recommending action against involved senior FBR officials.

According to tax lawyer Waheed Shahzad Butt, the FBR had previously issued a circular stating that having five assessments reversed in appeal would be considered misconduct. However, the FBR failed to implement this crucial directive except one case where a senior officer was sent to DOT IR for passing accounting and tax laws again.

The Director Law has now directed that a report be obtained from the concerned Chief Commissioner. If necessary, instructions will be issued to field formations to prevent such instances from recurring.

This development aims to address the issue of frivolous poor assessments and improve the overall performance of the FBR: Waheed added.

The FBR directive stated that during the hearing of the appeal in the subject titled case the on the contention of the taxpayer that all the discrepancies pertaining to revenue receipts under section 153(1)(a), contractual receipts under section 153( I )(c) and declared salary expenses were duly reconciled through documentary evidence before the assessing officer which were ignored by the assessing officer and an arbitrary tax demand was created. The Tribunal, to substantiate the appellant's claim provided a complete set of supporting documents with the instruction to verify. Despite repeated opportunities the department did not submit the reconciliation report. The learned DR, the same officer unsupported by any material evidence. Accordingly, the Impugned order is hereby annulled in its entirety, and the tits demand of Rs.43,977,137 deleted.

A copy of this order shall he forwarded to the Director General (Legal), Federal Board of Revenue, for information and necessary corrective action to ensure that such instances of high-handedness and procedural lapses are not repeated in the future."

“The above state of affairs not only shatter the confidence of the taxpayers but also reflect the performance of the department in negative. It is, therefore. requested that report from the concerned Chief Commissioner may he called and then if warranted necessary instruction to avoid the recurrence of such instances may kindly be issued to the field formations. Copy of the judgment of the Tribunal is enclosed”, Director Law added.

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