FAISALABAD: Record 7,000 complaints were filed with the office of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) during the last year, out of which 6,500 were resolved and relief was provided to the taxpayers in more than 90 percent cases, said FTO Dr Asif Mahmood Jah (Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Hilal-i-Imtiaz).

Addressing the business community in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI), he said that this institution was created in the year 2000 but its outreach remained very restricted due to the different reasons.

He said that prior to his appointment, five ombudsmen were appointed, out of which two belonged to the judiciary, two to the police service and one hailed from the DMG. However, in the year 2020 the government decided that the next ombudsman should belong to the tax department fully conversant with its intricacies.

Dr Asif said that earlier maximum 2,500 complaints were filed every year which had now jumped to 7,000. He said that FTO was making serious efforts to facilitate the taxpayers as now they considered it as a business friendly organization.

He further said that although a limit of 60 days had been fixed to resolve the complaints, the average time period during his tenure remained 40 days. He also mentioned the Alternate Dispute Resolution Committee (ADRC) under section 33 of the ordinance and said that he had been playing a proactive role and in own motions, the taxpayers’ cases were resolved in hours.

He said that business coordinators had been nominated in addition to the establishment of the FTO desks in major chambers of the country. “It inspired taxpayers to contact business coordinators which are from among them to freely and frankly discuss issues and get it resolved at the earliest,” he said.

Responding to a question, he said that although he had been mandated to deal with the cases of the maladministration, he also preferred to recommend cases in which policy interventions were required.

He said FTO was not only resolving the taxpayer’s cases but was also pursuing those till the implementation of his decisions.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023