FTO concerned at FBR Member’s lack of response

ISLAMABAD: Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has regretted that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Legal has wasted valuable time of all concerned agencies by not responding to queries raised by the taxpayers. In this regard, the FTO has issued an order against the FBR here on Monday.
 
Tax lawyer Waheed Shahzad Butt has requested the FBR to clarify the matter of futile litigation and binding circular issued by the FBR to follow orders passed by the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue Pakistan (ATIR).
 
The tax lawyer alleged that the FBR Member Legal who is unable to perform his duties and functions committed blatant violation of FBR Act 2007 read with section 206 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 on account of no response to the queries raised by the complainant. Chairman FBR should be directed that he must have a strict check and balance on the black and white of sub-ordinate officers to save the name of the Revenue Division.
 
According to the FTO’s order, the authorized representative and departmental representative (DR) reiterated their respective stance taken in the complaint and parawise comments.
 
The departmental representative stated that FBR has elaborately provided the reply on the specific queries raised by the Complainant.
 
However, the AR during course of hearing agitated that though FBR has now furnished a detailed reply but his point of view is that why the FBR officials did not respond to the queries of the Complainant within reasonable time and resultantly, they have to resort to approach to other forums, which is sheer wastage of time.
 
The perusal of record revealed that the complainant (Waheed Shahzad Butt) sought clarification from the FBR regarding binding nature of FBR Circular No. 1(7)DT-14/92 on the Commissioner(Appeals).
 
The FBR in their parawise comments and also during hearing elaborately answered the queries raised by the Complainant. The reply of the FBR is quite clear and unambiguous.
 
However, as argued by the authorized representative (AR), the FBR should have responded to the AR/Complainant within reasonable time so that the valuable time of all concerned agencies is not wasted, FTO added.