Financial year 2020-21: FBR disposes of 25,323 appeals involving Rs899.6bn revenue

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has disposed of 25,323 appeals involving tax revenue of Rs899.6 billion during the previous financial year.

The FBR held a Video Link Conference (VLC) with Commissioners Appeals to review their performance during the financial year 2020-21.

The purpose of holding the conference was also to chalk out a workable strategy for disposal of substantial pendency of appeals involving revenue of billions of rupees and to work out a strategy to dispose of manual income tax appeals by 30th December 2021 as envisaged in Rule 76O of Income Tax Rules, 2002.

The conference was chaired by Dr Waqar Masood Khan, Minister of State (MoS)/Special Assistant to PM (SAPM) on Finance and Revenue, and Asim Ahmed, secretary Revenue Division/Chairman, FBR.

Syed Ghulam Abbas Kazmi, member legal in his opening remarks presented an overview of the achievements of the Legal Wing, FBR during the previous financial year.

The Member Legal explained that Legal Wing, FBR and its 33 Appeals Commissionerates have taken several measures to improve the litigation process of tax cases including the e-filing of appeals.

A new speedy system of appeal filing has been introduced and is working at its full potential since 1st January 2021, and so far 20,415 appeals have been filed online.

Dr Masood, in his address, expressed the present government’s strong and unfaltering resolve towards re-organisation and transformation of the FBR.

He added that the FBR is the backbone of the public finance of the country as it generates and collects tax revenue.

During his earlier discourses, he explained that he had dilated upon the importance of automation in the FBR as an important component of reform initiatives of the government.

He congratulated the chairman, FBR and Member Legal for successfully launching e-filing of appeals and noted that it had minimised the physical interaction between the taxpayer and the Commissioner Appeals, thereby reducing the cost of appeal filing along with ensuring efficient service delivery and transparency.

He observed that it would also facilitate the offices of Commissioners (Appeals) to dispose of appeals efficiently in a paperless environment using the FBR’s web portal.

Asim praised the Legal Wing for disposing of 25,323 appeals involving tax revenue of Rs899.6 billion during the previous financial year.

He also acknowledged pivotal role played by the Legal and IT Wings of the FBR in making automation of appellate process a success. In the last session of the conference, the Commissioners Appeals made presentations about their performance during the previous financial year and shared strategy to dispose of pending and fresh appeals during the current financial year.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021