Lahore High Court (LHC) has issued a notice to the Regional Tax Office Bahawalpur Commissioner in a contempt of court petition moved by an aggrieved taxpayer Muhammad Anwar whose refunds have been denied by the commissioner on one and the other pretext even after obtaining orders from the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO).
It is learnt that contempt petition has been moved by RTO Bahawalpur based taxpayer through Advocate Waheed Shahzad Butt, wherein the petitioner questioned the working of President of Pakistan as Appellate Authority under FTO Ordinance, 2000 and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) functionaries regarding powers of IRS officials resulting in futile litigation due to passage of illegal orders or retention of taxpayer's money in shape of refunds.
The petitioner states, "Respondents (Office of President and commissioner Bahawalpur) are allegedly involved in violating the verdicts of binding nature issued by the LHC in WP No. 11983 and confirmed by the Supreme Court in civil appeal No. 1074. The respondents acted illegally, arbitrarily with mala-fide intention and refused the lawful right of the petitioner under the garb of Section 32 of the FTO Ordinance, 2000 by willfully flouting and disregarding the unambiguous orders passed by the LHC. Cognizance may be taken for contempt of the LHC and respondents may be stopped from doing any act prejudicial to the taxpayer citizens of Pakistan.
The tax lawyer added that earlier in the instant case the LHC ruled that President of Pakistan passed a wholly illegal and unlawful order against Federal Tax Ombudsman as representation filed by the FBR was patently time barred and as such could not have been entertained by the President.
In earlier petition by Muhammad Anwar, the LHC order stated, "There is, therefore, no doubt in the mind of this court that the President has passed a wholly illegal and unlawful order which is not sustainable in law and facts of the case. Representation filed by respondents was patently time barred and as such could not have been entertained by the President. Similarly, the findings of the FTO have attained finality for want of further challenge and, therefore, could not have been set aside by the President, while hearing representation. In this view of the matter, this writ petition is allowed and order dated 17.11.2016 is set aside being without lawful authority and of no legal effect.