All Pakistan Tax Bar Association (Aptba) has urged the Chairman, Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, to establish an effective, disciplined, efficient and an independent tribunal, replacing the existing one so as to decide the appeals judiciously.
The Bar raised this demand in its meeting, which noted that presently the working of the tribunal was quite unsatisfactory as it was serving like a subsidiary of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) rather than an independent judicial forum.
According to a spokesman of Aptba, the meeting observed that Sales Tax Department, being a big source of revenue generation, was playing an important role in country's economy but the Appellate Tribunal had failed to discourage and to redress the problems arising out due to abuse of power and deliberate misapplication of law.
The meeting maintained that there were a lot of problems at every stage, ie, at the time of filing, fixation and hearing of appeals and in the stay matters. Therefore, these problems need to be addressed immediately. The spokesman said that the Bar was of the unanimous view that "Particularly, the Lahore Sales Tax Tribunal has lost its credibility in the eyes of taxpayers as well as tax lawyers because of the said problems."
He added that the meeting suggested that the tribunal should pass strictures against the officers, wherein there was glaring violations and illegalities by the Sale Tax authorities and in suitable cases. It was further proposed that this tribunal should frame its rules on the lines of Income Tax Tribunal rules immediately as these rules have not been framed even after three years.
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