FTO takes notice of FBR system’s failure

Seeks response over non-disclosure of asset declaration despite submission of tax challans

ISLAMABAD: The federal tax ombudsman (FTO) has taken suo moto notice of the difficulties faced by the people who were unable to submit asset declaration under the tax amnesty scheme for tax year 2019 due to failure of the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) online system.

This was despite having submitted tax returns worth Rs2.6 billion within the prescribed time. In this regard, the ombudsman sought a response from the revenue authority over the issue of non-disclosure of assets despite submission of tax challans.

A source informed Daily Express that the FTO took notice of the situation on a complaint filed by the Pakistan Tax Bar Association.  The FTO sought a reply from FBR under notice number 11/2020.

On the other hand, the FBR prepared a preliminary report and sent it to the FTO in which it disclosed that there were 12,000 individuals who submitted the challans of tax dues under the amnesty scheme but failed to submit the declaration of assets.  When contacted, FBR officials confirmed that the report was sent to the ombudsman in response to a letter received from it.

They added that the FBR had received numerous requests from the Pakistan Tax Bar Association and other entities demanding to permit such people to disclose their assets despite non-submission of asset declarations.

Sources said that the FBR reviewed the proposal in detail, however, it was not allowed by the law. They continued that the FBR would submit a detailed response before the FTO regarding the case and court decision would be referred in this regard.

Pakistan Tax Bar Association General Secretary Farhan Shahzad penned a letter to the FBR where he pointed out that approximately 11,000 persons were facing difficulties as they had failed to submit asset declarations within the deadline due to failure of the online system.

The two-page letter available with Daily Express, blames FBR over its carelessness in tax mechanism and states that that people failed to submit asset declarations due to high traffic at the FBR portal.

The association also requested FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi to allow these people to disclose their assets reasoning that tax challans had been submitted.

Shahzad underlined that the matter was stuck between the Ministry of Law and the FBR, because the tax authority had said that it sent a summary to the law ministry but no response was received so far.

However, he pointed out that he met with Minister of Law Farogh Naseem some time ago who informed him that the ministry had not received any summary on this matter from the FBR.

Sources in FBR maintained that they encountered the same problem in earlier amnesty schemes as well and some taxpayers had approached the court which ordered refund of the tax amount and FBR had duly refunded their amounts.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2020.

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