ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed the Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) and Large Tax Units (LTUs) to implement the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) recommendations prior to any fresh assessment as it is their bounden duty to implement the FTO’s orders in letter and spirit.
According to details, the FBR has also issued instructions to the RTOs and LTUs to follow the FTO’s recommendations within the given timeframe until it has filed a review application with the FTO within 30 days of receipt of order.
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As per provisions of the Federal Ombudsman Institutional Reforms Act, 2013 (FOIRA), the FBR functionaries are bound to implement the unchallenged FTO’s recommendations, where the department has neither filed any review application nor preferred to any representation before the President against the FTO’s order and so as a consequence, his order has attained finality.
In case, representation before President is filed, the implementation remains suspended till disposal of the review application for a period of 60 days after filing of representation whichever is earlier. When the findings/recommendations attain finality, then fresh assessment cannot be made without first implementation of the recommendations. It is, therefore, requested that to implement the recommendations of the FTO’s in letter and spirit and within the stipulated period.
Similarly in the case of other important hot issue of “Queue Breaking”, the following instructions have been issued by the FBR to field formations “…claims warranting immediate processing on account of Court/FTO Orders shall be given priority in the queue…Breaking the queue has been expressly desired by the FBR in Court/FTO’s cases and these instructions are binding on all FBR functionaries under all fiscal statutes but some officials are grossly violating the binding instructions.
Under FOIRA, any aggrieved party may file a representation against FTO’s within 30 days directly to the President. Under section 14(2) of the FOIRA the operation of recommendations shall remain suspended for a period of 60 days. After the lapse of statutory time period revenue division shall be legally obliged to implement the recommendations without any further delay.
Another aspect behind the enactment of the FOIRA is to ensure effective implementation of FTO’s orders. In routine practice officials concerned had been blocking the orders passed in favour of taxpayers one pretext or the other. However, section 24 of FOIRA, that has overriding effect overall other enactments, if applied in good faith, can strengthen the process of accountability and enhance effectiveness of forum of FTO in providing speedy and expeditious relief to taxpayers by addressing their grievances to promote good governance.
