Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has organised an awareness workshop regarding its project titled "Public Awareness and Advocacy About Dispute Resolution Mechanism of Federal Tax Ombudsman" for medium and small scale enterprises on Monday at a local hotel of Lahore.
M Asif, Director General Administration FTO, shed light on the historical perspective of the Ombudsman office. He said at present, there are 150 Ombudsman offices in the world. In Pakistan, the Ombudsman office was established in 1983 and in year 2000, an independent office of Federal Tax Ombudsman was established. He elaborated in detail the complaint filing procedure and other available facilities provided by the FTO office to aggrieved taxpayers.
He said the mandate of FTO office is to ensure prompt and inexpensive redress of taxpayers' genuine grievances against maladministration by the tax employees of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)/Revenue Division, Government of Pakistan.
He said an average 1500 complaints annually are currently being handled by the FTO offices across Pakistan. Asif also highlighted the success stories of the FTO office since its establishment in year 2000. He said the tax-payers can file their complaints by courier, by hand, online or through e-mail. He said the services of FTO offices are free of cost, citizens friendly and the complaints are decided in 60 days.
He said Form-A is available on the website (www.fto.gov.pk) of the FTO on which tax-payers can lodge their complaints. The form can also be obtained from the FTO offices, besides its Islamabad secretariat, located in Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Sukkur, Abbottabad, Multan and Faisalabad.
He further said Wafaqi Tax Mohtasib is working to eliminate fear of traders so that they can freely lodge their complaints with the FTO offices located across Pakistan.
The traders gave useful feedback to the FTO team comprising DG Administration Muhammad Asif, Advisor Incharge Munir Qureshi and Advisor Muhammad Siddique. Naeem Meer, General Secretary All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Taajran, Ashraf Bhatti, President Anjuman-e-Taajran, Mehboob Ali Sarki, President Punjab Anjuman-e-Taajran, Haji Farrukh Iqbal, Chairman Crockery Shah Alam Market, Safdar Butt, President Lahore Trade Alliance and others also addressed the event.
The session was moderated by Ali Nasir, Media Manager, FTO Secretariat, Islamabad.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017

NA body forms sub-committee to consider PPCRA Bill 2015
RECORDER REPORT
ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Standing Committee on Communication on Monday constituted a sub-committee to consider the "Pakistan Private Courier Regulatory Authority Bill, 2015" in detail and present the report to the committee in thirty days. The meeting of the committee was held in the chair of Muhammad Muzammil Qureshi, MNA, in the Parliament House.
The sub-committee was constituted under the convenor ship of Engr Usman Khan Tarakai with Salim Rehman and Khalid Javed Waraich as its members to consider the bill in detail and present a report to the committee within 30 days. The bill was moved by MNA Belum Hasnain.
Considering the issues of precautionary measures taken on dangerous and bloody road curves at N-50 Khanozai, the committee was informed that the road is being realigned and converted into four lanes. Moreover, the chevrons and other safety signs are also being installed to facilitate the commuters during travelling, the committee members were informed. The committee also discussed the issues of land acquisition including the payment of compensation to owners of land acquired for construction of Shorkot-Garhmahraja Bridge. The secretary communications assured the committee members that the funds have been released and would be disbursed among the land owners in a week.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017