LAHORE: Consolidated show-cause tax recovery notices by the field formations of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) are rubbing salt into the wounds of taxpayers and causing harassment without any lawful justification.

Most of the time, said sources, field formations club recovery proceedings under sales tax with the recovery of special excise duty and issue a joint show-cause notice despite the fact that the Federal Excise Act requires separate proceedings.

They said a lethargic attitude as well as poor command on the relevant acts of tax officers leads to such controversies which cause harassment to taxpayers on one hand and ends up on wastage of financial resources.

The sources said tax authorities prefer to mention non-payment of the excise duty in the notices originally issued for the recovery of sales tax. Interestingly, they added, most of the notices carry further discrepancies, as, except, quantifying the amount of loss with respect to non-payment of sales tax and special excise duty, nothing is mentioned to indicate alleged violations, breaches and the logical consequences.

Accordingly, said the sources, such notices fall neither here nor there, as allegations of one type of tax breaches are mixed up with the other one.

Some tax practitioners said majority of the notices could not hold ground before the appellate tribunals as they fail to establish a controversy on record. They said special excise duty can only be imposed by initiating proceedings under the enabling provisions of Federal Excise Act. Since no separate order for special excise duty exists on record and the order in original bears a single number on its face for both the levies, therefore, the tax practitioners waste no time in approaching the relevant forum for dismissal.

According to them, such conspicuous notices are issued by the tax authorities to pressurise taxpayers which is tantamount to corrupt practices. They said the department does not take notice timely and initiate harsh disciplinary proceedings against such unscrupulous elements, which earns bad name for the department.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023