Daily Times

Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah Friday said that the oraganization received about 3,000 complaints from January to June 2022, out of which 2,650 complaints had been addressed.

The FTO along with his team visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) and gave a presentation to the business community about the 6 months achievements of his organization.

Dr. Arslan Subuctageen, Advisor (Customs), Sarwat Tahira Habib Advisor (Media & Awareness) and Almas Ali Jovindah Advisor Legal FTO accompanied him on the occasion. Dr Asif said that the complaints redressal time had also been reduced from 68 to 40 days while 75 suo motu cases were taken up during the 6-month period.

He said that on the orders of FTO, customs authorities collected over Rs 5 billion by auctioning pending vehicles and goods. Similarly, on the intervention of FTO, Federal Board of Revenue cleared refunds of about Rs 8 billion of taxpayers, he added. He said that FTO had set up 5 new regional offices to expand its network for the facilitation of taxpayers and assured that the ombudsman would continue to act as an advocate of taxpayers to address their grievances. He urged the business community to take benefit of the ombudsman’s services for redressing their tax complaints. He also nominated President, Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Naima Ansari as Honorary Business Coordinator of FTO and presented a nomination letter to her at the occasion. Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President ICCI lauded the 6 month achievements of FTO that showed its good performance adding that the ombudsman was providing speedy justice to the taxpayers by addressing their tax complaints, which deserved great appreciation.

He said that FTO’s model of public private partnership by nominating Honorary Business Coordinators from the private sector was making a good contribution towards solving the grievances of taxpayers. The current tax system of the country was quite complicated, he said and urged the government to make tax reforms to develop a tax system to facilitate the promotion of business and investment activities, which would ultimately increase the tax revenue of the country.

Vice President ICCI, Muhammad Faheem Khan and former President,Khalid Iqbal Malik also lauded the role of FTO for providing speedy and free of cost justice to the taxpayer and added that the ombudsman’s interventions were improving the confidence of taxpayers on its facilitative role. The representatives of various markets and sectors including marble, restaurants, jewellery, overseas employment promoters and bakery highlighted various tax issues and sought the assistance of FTO to address them. Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah asked them to send the complaints in writing to FTO and assured to look into them for redress.