MULTAN: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has full authority to take stern action against maladministration of the tax department on the complaints of taxpayers.
This was told by Federal Tax Ombudsman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry during an exclusive interview with Customs Today in his regional Office. He said that FTO is playing vital role in resolving grievances of taxpayers of the country. FTO has protected the rights of business community according to practice law.
He told that Federal Tax Ombudsman office was established in Year 2000 to deliver speedy justice to aggrieved taxpayers in any case by launching independent investigations after receiving complaints of taxpayers on inefficiency of tax department.
Abdul Rauf informed that FTO is receiving almost 1500 to 2000 complaints against tax departments and we are providing relief to taxpayers in minimum time by resolving their genuine concerns. The ratio of cases will increase further with the passage of time due to timely relief because Federal Tax Ombudsman is bound to conclude any complaint within 60 days of period at any cost according to their rule of law.
Federal Tax Ombudsman has made their complaint registration procedure easier for the facilitation of public and “we are in access of every grieved person through email or writing an application on a simple paper by attaching supporting documents with their complaints,” he explained.
Federal Tax Ombudsman has ended affidavit on the legal stamp papers to ease complainants for filing their complaints after shortage of stamp papers. He told that FTO is providing speedy justice to complainant free of cost and they don’t need even counsels for the representation of their cases if they have not enough resources and they may represent their case themselves in any matter. They can hire any counsels also for the pursuance of their cases filed in FTO as there is no legal binding for them.
He stated that Federal Tax Ombudsman may investigate any tax matter if they found the allegations of maladministration factual during the hearing of any case and asked relevant tax authority to submit their response in these charges within given span of time.
He stated that Federal Tax Ombudsman has sufficient powers for the implementation of decision and every decision is also forwarded to President of Pakistan. FTO also exercises same powers of Supreme Court by alleging Contempt of Court on the disobedience of its decision.
Rauf Chaudhry expressed, “30-35 cases per month are filed with Federal Tax Ombudsman in the Multan Office and we are satisfying our 80% petitioners due to speedy justice system in FTO.”
He further told that Federal Tax Ombudsman is working in all four provinces of the country including their regional Offices in Multan and other cities of Punjab. Federal Tax Ombudsman has planned to establish a state-of-the-art office in Sialkot after receiving substantial amount of complaints of business community.
He stated, “FTO has launched awareness campaigns in the major cities of the country and we are also running continuous advertisement promotions to aware public. Federal Tax Ombudsman is also conducting meetings and seminars with Chambers of Commerce and small traders to aware them about the importance of FTO. We have recently planned seminars with Chambers of Lodhran and Bahawalpur for the interaction with taxpayers to tell them about significance of FTO.”
In the conclusion, he remarked that only a taxpayer complaint lies in jurisdiction of FTO and those who have service issues go to the Federal Service Tribunal for their matters.
