In Pakistan, the ombudsman office was established in 1983 and in year 2000, an independent office of Federal Tax Ombudsman was established. He elaborated in detail the complaint filing procedure and other available facilities provided by the FTO office to aggrieved taxpayers. He said the mandate of FTO office is to ensure prompt and inexpensive redress of taxpayers' genuine grievances against maladministration by the tax employees of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)/Revenue Division, Government of Pakistan. He said an average 1500 complaints annually are currently being handled by the FTO offices across Pakistan.
Asif also highlighted the success stories of the FTO office since its establishment in year 2000. He said the tax-payers can file their complaints by courier, by hand, online or through e-mail. He said the services of FTO offices are free of cost, citizens friendly and the complaints are decided in 60 days. He said Form-A is available on the website (www.fto.gov.pk) of the FTO on which tax-payers can lodge their complaints. The form can also be obtained from the FTO offices, besides its Islamabad secretariat, located in Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Sukkur, Abbottabad, Multan and Faisalabad.
He further said Wafaqi Tax Mohtasib is working to eliminate fear of traders so that they can freely lodge their complaints with the FTO offices located across Pakistan. The traders gave useful feedback to the FTO team comprising Director General FTO, Muhammad Asif; Advisor Income Tax, Sardar Irhsad Shaheen, and Advisor Muhammad Siddique. Kashif Chaudhry, President All Pakistan Tajir Ittehad and President Markazi Anjuman-e-Taajran Islamabad; Rana Ayaz, President Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industries; Malik Zaheer Ahmed, President Anjuman-e-Taajran Aabpara Market and Qazi Ilyas, President Anjuman-e-Taajran Jinnah Super Market addressed the event. The session was moderated by Ali Nasir, Media Manager, FTO Secretariat, Islamabad.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017