Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Abdur Rauf Chaudhry submitted Annual Report-2016 to President Mamnoon Hussain at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Thursday.
Speaking on the occasion the President said that FTO plays a positive role in increasing national revenue by building taxpayers confidence and by addressing systemic issues. Expressing satisfaction over the report, the President appreciated various initiatives taken by FTO to improve the performance of the institution. The President commended the role and performance of FTO in addressing the tax payers’ grievances ever since its establishment in the year 2000. The President called for devising an effective strategy to resolve tax related issues of the people and emphasized to benefit from the experiences of other countries in this regard.
The President stated that relief in tax refund should be provided to small business enterprises to enable them to contribute in the country’s development. The President stressed the need for strict implementation of tax laws to discourage the practices of tax evasion. He appreciated the Office of the Tax Ombudsman for timely resolution of problems of tax payers as the average disposal time was reduced to 49 days which was 63 days in 2015.
The President also expressed satisfaction on restructuring of consultative committee of FTO and on complete operationalization of regional offices of FTO in Faisalabad, Multan, Sukkur and Abbotabad. The President hoped that FTO Secretariat will continue its efforts to serve the people by further improving its performance.
Earlier the Federal Tax Ombudsman briefed the President that the number of complaints received by the FTO during 2016 was 1768, which shows an increase of 15% as compared to 2015 and the number of complaints decided in 2016 was 1807, which is 12% more than 2015. He further informed that 79% of the complaints were decided in favour of tax payers. Moreover, 84% decisions of FTO were accepted by tax payers and FBR without any review or representation.
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