Daily Times

In the instance of dismissal of five writ petitions filed by the Inland Revenue Commissioners including Muhammad Anwar (CIR) and Muhammad Tariq Chaudhry (Member IR Policy FBR), the Hon`ble Lahore High Court, Lahore (LHC) upheld the letter of Hon`ble Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) issued to FBR to conduct inspection of the offices of the petitioners against whom there is an apprehension of being guilty of maladministration as defined under section 2(3) of FTO Ordinance, 2000.

The Advisor (Legal) to FTO Mr. Almas Ali Jovindah enumerated that the petitioners in their writ petitions before LHC challenged the jurisdiction and power of FTO to conduct inspection of their offices. LHC graciously endorsed the jurisdiction and power of FTO to form an inspection team upon initiating own-motion proceedings based on valid information under section 17 and 9(1) of the Ordinance, respectively. LHC decided that the constitution of inspection team is as per law and the power to initiate own-motion proceedings has been vested in FTO through statute.

The Advisor (Legal) further stated that Hon`ble Peshawar High Court, Peshawar (PHC), in a similar writ petition, also endorsed FTO`s statutory jurisdictional powers regarding own-motion and creation of inspection team. In similar cases before Hon`ble Islamabad High Court (IHC) and Hon`ble Sindh High Court, Karachi (SHC) the, without nudging or prodding the statutory powers of FTO in respect of own-motion and constitution of inspection team, directed for a procedure to be adopted before conducting inspection of any office or officer of Inland Revenue, whereby it was held that allegation of maladministration has to be conveyed, at the outset, to FBR and the tax employee who is being alleged of maladministration. Such tax employee has to be provided a proper hearing opportunity to respond to the allegations after which FTO may constitute inspection team to take the investigation procedure forward.

Recent amendments in FTO Regulations (IDCR) have already provided a compact procedure for conducting inspections, whereas the judgements of IHC and SHC are completely in line with new amendments. SHC, in its judgement, while endorsing statutory power of FTO to initiate own-motion proceeding upon valid information, has provided a guideline in cases where FTO may initiate own-motions upon valid medium of information which includes media reports, investigations from other agencies, referrals from authorities., etc.