Manually-registered persons: FTO asks FBR to carry out probe into data

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has asked the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to carry out a thorough investigation of the data of recent manually registered persons by the Field Formations in order to forestall any revenue leakages.

The Database Administrator, Regional Tax Office (RTO), Multan, provided a list of 65 manually registered cases during the month of November 2025 within the jurisdiction of RTO Multan as a sample.

It was found that these cases have been registered manually from the login of department officers without following the latest SOP for the registration of new NTN.

According to an order of the FTO issued to the FBR on Monday, in view of likely leakage of state revenue, the issue requires further probe by the Field Formations because such registrations have been made in violation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) laid down by the FBR for registration of taxpayers, linking it with mandatory incorporation of “SIM” numbers.

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Maladministration in terms of section 2(3)(i), i.e., “a decision, process recommendation, act of omission or commission which- (a) is contrary to law, rules or regulations or is a departure from established practice or procedure, unless it is bona fide and for valid reasons:” is clearly visible.

The FBR will direct the Director General (DT & IT), FBR, and Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) authorities at Islamabad to carry out a thorough investigation of the DATA of recent manually registered persons by the Field Formations to forestall any Revenue leakages.

Departmental officers involved in bypassing FBR’s SOP need to be identified and taken to task, FTO recommended.

The complaint has been filed under the Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance, 2000 (FTO Ordinance) by a tax practitioner against irregularities in the registration process of the FBR.

The complainant stated that following the recent update, in which the FBR made it mandatory for new taxpayer registrations to be verified only through the registered mobile number linked to the applicant’s CNIC. Certain individuals have found ways to bypass this verification process. In several cases I reviewed, the taxpayers’ registration forms (Form 181) show the ‘Medium’ as “Manual”, indicating that these NTNs were not generated through the normal online process, but the date of registration in the FTO Secretariat.

It is reported that some individuals are exploiting this loophole, charging thousands of rupees per case to manually create NTNs without proper SIM verification. This practice undermines the integrity of the taxpayer registration system and damages public trust in FBR’s digital reforms.

The complainant has strongly urged FBR to investigate this matter, identify the persons involved in this malpractice, and take immediate action to close any system loopholes that allow manual creation of NTNs without proper verification, FTO order added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025