ISLAMABAD: Amid varying figures on compliance of the Federal Tax Ombudsman’s directions and recommendations, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has maintained a percentage of above 75 percent since 2009.
According to the statistics, the FBR scored highest percentage during 2012 when it accepted 86.29 percent decisions, carrying certain directions and recommendations, given by the FTO.
The date also revealed that the FBR accepted lowest number of cases during 2010 when it accepted only 76.82 percent decision announced by the FTO.
Details also showed that FBR maintained over 75 percentages during others years as well on accepting decision announced by FTO. In 2009, the FBR accepted 77.79 percent decisions given by FTO, during 2011 FBR accepted 81.86 percent decisions of FTO, in 2013 FBR accepted 84.21 percent decision of FTO, during 2014 FBR accepted 84.56 percent decisions of FTO and in 2015 FBR accepted 85.4 decisions announced by the FTO.
It is noteworthy that decisions other than the mentioned ones in each respective year were challenged by the FBR before the president. Hence, in the preceding year, 2015, FBR challenged 14.6 percent decisions given by the FTO. In 2009, FBR challenged 22.2 percent decisions; in 2010 FBR challenged 23.18 percent decisions; in 2011 FBR challenged 18.14 percent decisions, in 2012 FBR challenged 13.71 percent decisions, in 2013 FBR challenged 15.79 percent decisions, and in 2014 FBR challenged 15.44 percent decisions announced by FTO.
However, the FTO officials had expressed their satisfaction with FBR performance on accepting decisions of FTO and said that the tax collecting department had improved its performance in this regard.
The figures also showed that trend of challenging FTO’d decisions was also reducing on part of FBR. In 2010, 22.2 decisions were challenged by the FBR while in 2015 only 14.6 decisions announced by the FTO were challenged by the FBR.
It may be noted that these decision included FTO’s institutions pronouncements from Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and others stations.
