LAHORE: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has instructed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to establish a specialized team of experts responsible for consistently monitoring the registration system’s traffic flow. This measure aims to prevent any potential system errors or bottlenecks.
In relation to the expansion of the tax base, as advised by the FTO’s office, the FBR must formulate and release a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) outlining methods to promptly address inquiries from taxpayers who feel aggrieved.
Furthermore, the FBR has received guidance to enhance the digital platform used for submitting tax returns online. Additionally, the FBR is required to perform regular registration updates, ensuring that taxpayers have access to cutting-edge online facilities.
An own motion investigation was initiated while exercising powers conferred u/s 9(1) of the Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance, 2000 (FTO Ordinance) against technical gaps in respect of “process flow” and “systemic errors” in registration processes were brought to the notice of FTO by various complainants. While investigating the said complaints, it transpired that in many cases Iris system failed to respond to queries of the taxpayers.
The FTO Secretariat took up the matter with the FBR following the surfacing of multiple complaints on systemic gaps and errors, the respondent reviewed the online registration system and deployed a new and revamped system on May 26, 2023, which resolved the visible issues.
Notwithstanding, the system needs further improvement to facilitate the taxpayers particularly when the system gets choked due to the high volume of transactions at the time of filing of tax returns.
The FTO said that the previous design of the online registration system in IRIS for purposes of Broadening of Tax Base (BTB) was flawed in the first place as it did not provide smooth sailing through the system to those persons who wanted to register themselves as new taxpayers.
It also created hurdles in the way of those who were not liable to be registered u/s 181 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001. They were denied excess to the registration form and their queries were not responded to at all, FTO added.
