It is learnt that the Regional Tax Office at Sahiwal was established way back on October 1, 2017 to facilitate the taxpayers of Sahiwal and Okara who had to travel to Multan and Lahore respectively for their tax matters with the high-ups. However, still the RTO is not fully functional and taxpayers have to face difficulties as only one commissioner either posted at Okara is given additional charge of Sahiwal or vice versa with the result that working at both the stations suffers. When contacted, tax consultant Shahid Jami explained that since creation of the RTO at Sahiwal, the chief commissioners and commissioners at Sahiwal and Okara are not posted full time rather usually additional charge is given to the chief commissioner of Multan and similarly additional charge of the Sahiwal and Multan Zone is given to the same commissioner who without having a fixed schedule of sitting at Sahiwal and Okara visits the other station as per his convenience and with the result that the matters of the taxpayer at both the stations are not dealt with on a regular basis.
He explained that there are certain statutory functions of the commissioner such as issuance of exemption certificate and allowing of extension for filing of returns of total income and these statutory functions at two different stations at the same time are not possible and hence smooth working of the tax office suffers to the disadvantage of the taxpayer.
Shahid Jami urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that full-time commissioners and additional commissioners should be posted at Sahiwal and Okara and the tendency of giving additional charge of a different station be discontinued.