FTO criticises performance of tax departments

Federal Tax Ombudsman, Justice Munir A. Sheikh has criticised that the Federal Tax Departments had been identified with rampant inefficiency, corruption and oblivious to their basic duties.
While expressing his views at PHMA House here on Thursday, he said the departments seen as totally non-responsive to the expectations of the citizens and unconcerned with the policy targets set out by the government". Expressing disappointment, he said that never good governance had been felt so badly than now.
He attributed the establishment of the Federal Tax Ombudsman to the inefficiency, arbitrary decisions by tax officers, complexity of functions of tax departments, persistent delays in solving taxpayers' problems.
Justice Munir recalled that Federal Tax Ombudsman had been established with a view to enhance its credibility and efficiency to resolve problems of tax payers pertaining to federal taxes, ie grievances concerning to the income tax, customs, sales tax, wealth tax and federal excise.
He said Federal Tax Ombudsman had been established in 2002 through an ordinance aimed to enforce accountability, transparency, quick resolution of disputes, and investigate cases of mal-administration, identify the problems, and recommend solutions to Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to eliminate the malpractice.
He pointed out that taxpayers were not fully aware of the powers assigned to this institution and it is my intention to create greater awareness of the role of this institution amongst the taxpayers.
Justice Munir also pointed out that most of the complaints were regarding complicated tax problems of legal disputes, assessment of tax, refunds and rebates, while in a large number of cases the non-traceability or non-availability of the relevant records were the major reasons behind the taxpayers problems.
He apprised that since the establishment of this very institution, 9,293 complaints had been recorded by the taxpayers up to March 2007, of which 8,948 complaints had been disposed, while 345 complaints were in process.