FTO defies own order?

ISLAMABAD: Till Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR’s) representation is decided by the president, the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) is not following its own order, which had affirmed the fundamental right of taxpayers to obtain copies of their tax documents and order sheets.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has challenged the said order of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), before the President.

FTO order stated, “the AR’s emphasis, during hearing, was on decision of this Forum in C. No. C. No. 29003/ISB/ST/2025 but according to the record, the same has been challenged before the Hon’ble President of Pakistan. Therefore, the same has not attained finality so far. The above referred complaint as relied upon by the AR, was decided by this Forum on 02.03.2026 as under:

“Conclusively, the Complainant has fundamental right duly supported by Sales Tax Act, 1990 and Constitutional provisions of Pakistan to obtain copies of sales tax documents inclusive of order sheets pertaining to details of proceedings of the case with which the Complainant remained engaged with the Deptt”, FTO order added.

Also read: ST return: FTO orders FBR to rectify ‘system errors’

In a recently issued order the taxpayer placed heavy reliance on earlier Order passed by FTO, in which the FTO had previously ruled in unambiguous terms that taxpayers possess a constitutionally and legally grounded right to access records pertaining to their proceedings before the FBR. The Forum had held in that order that a complainant holds a fundamental right, supported by law and the Constitutional provisions of Pakistan, to obtain copies of tax documents including order sheets detailing the proceedings of cases in which the complainant had been engaged with the Department.

The FTO declined to treat the earlier ruling as a binding or persuasive precedent, noting on the record that earlier order had been challenged before the President of Pakistan and had therefore not attained legal finality.

The development raises pointed questions about the practical enforceability of taxpayer rights within Pakistan’s administrative justice framework.

If an ombudsman’s own prior findings on fundamental rights can be neutralized by a challenge that has not yet been decided, taxpayers are left in legal limbo precisely when procedural clarity matters most, experts claimed.

The original order had been considered a significant affirmation of citizens’ rights under Pakistan’s constitutional framework, recognizing the right to information regarding one’s own tax proceedings as not merely administrative courtesy, but a matter of legal entitlement. The order had been invoked in subsequent cases as an authoritative statement of taxpayer rights in dealings with the revenue department.

The matter now draws attention to the broader question of how pending challenges to FTO orders interact with their operational precedential value and whether taxpayers who rely on such orders in good faith are left exposed when those orders are contested upward through the administrative hierarchy.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026