ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has penalized an Inland Revenue officer, who caused revenue loss by accepting the value of an immovable property at lower rate instead of the actual market value.

According to a notification issued by the FBR on Friday, Fahad Faizan Khan (IRS/BS-17) caused loss of revenue by accepting the value of a property at lower rate instead of the actual value despite the fact that photocopy of agreement to sell was available on the record.

However, he made no effort to get the same verified and finalized the case in a hasty and slipshod manner. Ms Nafeesa Satti, the then Commissioner IR (IRS/BS-20), RTO, Islamabad was appointed as Inquiry Officer who submitted inquiry report with the findings that all the charges levelled against the accused officer stood established.

During the course of personal hearing, Fahad Faizan Khan (IRS/BS-17) reiterated his stance already taken in reply to the Show Cause Notice. He also submitted concise statement stating therein that disciplinary proceedings are based on anonymous complaint and contented that the assessment was carried out in good faith after consultation with Additional Commissioner-IR, City Zone, Rawalpindi who gave a written statement in fact finding inquiry that he agreed with the accused officer that no definite information was available and that no malafide intention was involved.

He further contended that the department revised the assessment order which was set aside by Commissioner-IR (Appeals) and deleted the tax demand. Moreover, the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue (ATIR) upheld the assessment made by him and annulled the subsequent assessment in this case.

FBR Member Admin is of the considered opinion that “Inefficiency”, “Misconduct” and “Corruption” against the accused officer stand established as the accused officer made no effort to verify the photocopy of the sale agreement available on record and ignored the fact that the thumb impression on the document were duly verified by the NADRA. Thus the officer was misdirected by considering the copy of sale document non-effective.

Though the case proceedings were not getting time barred yet the accused officer exhibited unnecessary haste in completing the proceedings and failed to probe into the matter thoroughly like an efficient revenue officer.

He also did not put in any professional efforts to summon the sellers of the impugned property wherein he could have got the clear money trail in the matter.

Likewise, he did not bother to ascertain the fair market value as per legal requirements. The Authorized Officer/Member (Admn/HR) was of the imposed minor penalty of “withholding of annual increments for a period,” FBR notification added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024