Arrest of RTO Faisalabad officer: IR officers observe pen down strike, stage protest demonstrations

Officers of Inland Revenue, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), on Friday staged protest demonstrations across the country against the arrest of their colleague - additional commissioner, Faisalabad Muhammad Saleem on the directives of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO).
According to details, Inland Revenue officers, who wore black armbands and displayed placards against the FTO decision, observed pen-down strike at all Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) in general and RTO, Faisalabad in particular. The protesters while talking to Business Recorder termed the FTO decision discriminatory, saying that the FTO office, which was supposed to be a watchdog to avert malpractices in tax offices, poked its nose into RTO's administrative issues.
Regarding the issue, the protesters said the FTO on the complaint of Asif Traders directed RTO, Faisalabad to release its pending tax refunds, despite objections raised by the said tax office. They said the RTO, Faisalabad after conducting physical verification thrice at different places mentioned by the said company found that this company did not exist at any place.
Keeping the findings in view, the detained Inland Revenue officer rejected the decision of FTO under section 170(4), which was considered as contempt, they said. Moreover, the protesters said that although the detained officer had approached all concerned authorities to avoid the release of tax refunds, the authorities instead of verifying the veracity of RTO's findings decided the case in favour of FTO that led three-month imprisonment to the said officer with a fine of Rs 50000.
They vowed that the protest demonstrations would continue till the release of their colleague and added that the arrested officer was in bad health and was shifted to hospital from jail for medical treatment. Despite repeated attempts, FTO could not be contacted for comment.