The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Dr Muhammad Shoaib Suddle said on Thursday that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had issued refund amounting to Rs 9.79 billion to taxpayers in 2012 as a result of intervention of the FTO office against Rs 7.89 billion paid during 2011.
Sharing achievements of the FTO Office during a press conference, Dr Suddle said that 2012 has been another landmark year for the Office of the FTO. The exceptional achievements of the FTO during 2012 have added new dimensions to FTO's performance matrix. In 2012, a sum of Rs 9.79 billion was refunded to the taxpayers as compared to Rs 7.89 billion during 2011.
This included refunds amounting to Rs 822.33 million in 375 income tax cases, Rs 125.06 million in 25 sales tax cases, Rs 10.16 million in 01 case of federal excise, Rs 1.89 million in 03 customs cases and Rs 8.83 billion in 231,250 duty drawback cases. In 2011, an amount of Rs 6.63 billion was refunded in 181,880 duty drawback cases as against Rs 5.1 billion in 195,331 cases in 2010. No such refund was ever issued before 2010. The taxpayers also received a sum of Rs 1.61 million in compensation for delayed payment of refund in 30 cases.
He said that the amount of refund in 2012 is 5 times the total amount refunded during 2000-2009. In 2012, under FTO's suo motu jurisdiction, 231,250 duty drawback customs cases involving a refund of Rs 8.83 billion were settled, up by a hefty 27 percent in 2011. FTO said that Rs 9.79 billion that the taxpayers received during 2012 due to the intervention of the FTO was almost 5 times of the total amount that they got during eight years from 2002 to 2009 and 44 times the average per annum they received during the same period, as against Rs 7.89 billion in 2011, Rs 7.08 billion in 2010 and Rs 0.094 billion in 2009.
In 2012, the FTO received 1689 fresh complaints of which 883 (52.28 percent ) pertained to income tax, 517 (30.61 percent ) to sales tax, 269 (15.93 percent ) to customs, 17 (1.00 percent ) to federal excise and 03 (0.18 percent ) to Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002.
As many as, 1430 (85.66 percent ) fresh complaints and 167 complaints pending from 2011 were decided by December 31, 2012, making a total of 1597 complaints decided in 2012. Of the 1597 decided complaints, 1414 (86.5 percent ) ended up in favour of taxpayers. Significantly, the taxpayers' grievances in as many as 493 complaints decided during 2012 were redressed during the investigation phase. The number of grievances redressed at investigation stage was 399 in 2011, 367 in 2010 and 151 in 2009, Dr Suddle said.
Citing other data, FTO said that 100 more cases were taken up with FBR for informal resolution under Section 33 of the FTO Ordinance, 2000, as against 27 such cases in 2011 and only 02 cases in 2010. This initiative of the FTO is being increasingly pressed for expeditious and amicable redressal of taxpayers' mundane grievances, without docketing these for formal investigation. The FTO received 03 complaints against refusal to provide requested information under the Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002. Apart from this, 58 review applications were decided during 2012.
In 2012, the average time taken to decide a complaint was 48 days, lowest ever, as compared to 60 days for 2011, 67 days in 2010 and 117 days in 2009. This exceptional success was achieved despite a major investigation assigned by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan, which consumed three months of dedicated effort. Implementation of FTO's findings by the FBR remained under increased focus during 2012.
With exceptional effort, FTO's recommendations in as many as 1420 cases were implemented by the FBR during 2012, as compared to 1159 cases during 2011, 698 cases during 2010 and 321 cases during 2009. In other words, the number of decisions that got implemented during 2012 was up 23 percent as compared to 2011, up more than 100 percent as compared to 2010 and up 350 percent as compared to 2009. More significant, recommendations issued in 2009 (70), 2008 (15), 2007 (8), 2006 (1), 2005 (1), 2004 (1), 2003 (2) and 2002 (2) that got implemented during 2012.
He said that the year 2012 has been a landmark year for the Office of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO). In 2012, the FBR implemented 1,420 FTO recommendations, up 23 percent compared to 2011 and up 350 percent compared to 2009. Admittedly, maladministration within our tax infrastructure is deep-rooted but the FTO has fast emerged as an effective and an efficient instrument of good governance.
In 2012, FTO's Computerised Complaint Management System (FCCMS) was operationalized. Resultantly, the complainants can now file their complaints through FTO's e-mail portal. The FTO has also established an e-link with the FBR to cut short the time lag. All FTO offices in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Quetta are now linked through the Internet, Dr Suddle added.
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