FTO addresses over 88 percent complaints of taxpayers in 6 months

ISLAMABAD: Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah, Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) along with his team visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) and gave a presentation to the business community about the 6 months achievements of his organization.
Dr. Arslan Subuctageen Advisor (Customs), Ms. Sarwat Tahira Habib Advisor (Media & Awareness) and Almas Ali Jovindah Advisor Legal FTO accompanied him at the occasion.
Addressing the business community, Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah said that FTO received about 3000 complaints from January 2022 to June 2022, out of which 2650 complaints were addressed. He said that the complaints redressal time has 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, FBR cleared refunds of about Rs.8 billion of taxpayers. He said that FTO has set up 5 new regional offices to expand its network for the facilitation of taxpayers.
He assured that FTO would continue to act as an advocate of taxpayers to address their grievances and stressed that the business community should take benefit of its services for redressal of their tax complaints.
He also nominated Ms. Naima Ansari, President, Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry as Honorary Business Coordinator of FTO and presented a nomination letter to her at the occasion.
Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry lauded the 6 month achievements of FTO that showed its good performance and said that FTO 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.
He said that the current tax system of Pakistan was quite complicated and stressed that the government should make tax reforms to develop a tax system that should facilitate the promotion of business and investment activities, which would ultimately increase the tax revenue of the country.
Muhammad Faheem Khan, Vice President and Khalid Iqbal Malik, former President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry also lauded the role of FTO for providing speedy and free of cost justice to the taxpayer and added that FTO’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 etc. highlighted various tax issues and sought the assistance of FTO in addressing them. Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah asked them to send these complaints in writing to FTO and assured to look into them for redress. -NNI