Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), Justice Munir A. Sheikh (Retd), has said the basic idea behind establishment of Federal Tax Ombudsman Office was to enforce accountability, transparency and justice.
"As an external and independent agency this office aim is to objectively investigate the cases of maladministration and recommend steps to reduce and eliminate them," he explained while addressing the Annual Dinner-2006 hosted by Income Tax Bar Association here on Saturday night.
He said the role of this office, which was established in August 2000, is to diagnose, investigate and pinpoint the maladies, shortcomings, problems and malpractices and provide a forum to the aggrieved public for quick and inexpensive remedy.
Its secretariat was established in Islamabad and regional secretariats were established in Lahore and Karachi.
The Federal Tax Ombudsman said there is need to create awareness of the role of this office and create greater confidence in the minds of taxpayers to assert their rights and firmly stand against the injustice, illegalities and violation of their legal rights.
The functions and jurisdiction of the Federal Tax Ombudsman empower him to diagnose, investigate, redress and rectify any injustice done to a person by the departments of Income Tax, Sales Tax, Customs, Federal Excise, Wealth Tax and prevention of smuggling.
Justice Munir A. Sheikh (Retd) informed that during the period of less than six years since its establishment, 7,725 complaints had been received in this office, out of which 7,439 were disposed of and only 286 complaints were in process at the end of February 2005.
Special care has been taken to ensure timely implementation of the findings made by this office and the Ordinance has incorporated a comprehensive mechanism for enforcing the decisions, he explained.
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