Alvi for enhancing outreach of FTO

President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday called for enhancing the outreach of the Federal Tax Ombudsman’s (FTO) for swift resolution of the problems faced by the people.

He further lauded the role played by the FTO for providing speedy relief to traders and businessmen. The president also underscored the need for creating awareness about the FTO’s role in overcoming the maladministration of customs and tax authorities.

The president made these remarks while talking to the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Dr Asif Mahmood Jah at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.

On the occasion, Jah presented the Annual Report 2021 highlighting the performance and achievements of the FTO.

He informed that during 2021, 2,816 fresh complaints were registered with the FTO, whereas 333 carry forward cases from the previous years were also processed.

Out of these, 2,867 cases were disposed off during the year, he added.

He further stated that 88.14% of the decisions had been implemented by the concerned quarters. It was told that the Ombudsman had decided refund claims worth Rs8,499.11 million and the amount was paid to the aggrieved taxpayers by the Federal Board of Revenue.

Jah said that in order to facilitate the taxpayers and expeditiously resolve the complaints, the FTO had started informal resolution of complaints in priority cases under Section 33 of the FTO Ordinance, 2000.

The FTO further highlighted that the ombudsman had cleared sales tax refund worth Rs600 million to over 9,000 buyers of vehicles by declaring the collection of sales tax in excess of 12.5% from the complainants as contrary to law.

He also informed the president that the FTO had established facilitation desks at the international airports of Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, Lahore and Peshawar and land border stations of Chaman and Torkham to facilitate traders and businessmen.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2022.

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