MULTAN: Multan Tax Bar Association (MTBA) demanded for complete implementation of Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue (ATIR) decisions.
General Secretary Multan Tax Bar Association Muhammad Imran Ghazi has told Customs Today that non-corporative and insulting behavior of IR officers deployed at Regional Tax Office and Large Taxpayers Office Multan quite humiliating.
Officers at RTO Multan and LTO Multan has not started implementation of Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue orders issued by Multan Bench and prima facie it seems that they are unhappy after the setup of ATIR Bench at Multan and intentionally taking the advantage of non-availability of provisions of contempt of court proceedings under the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue Rules.
He said that currently there are lot of orders of Hon’ble this Court, which are kept pending for implementation without any show cause and reason and hence cause of deprive of statutory rights as enshrined by the Article 4, 5, 10-A, 18 and 25 of Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973. That due to non-compliant attitude of IR Officers at Multan, taxpayers have left no option except to knock the doors for implementation of ATIR’s orders and hence, this situation is cause of expense out of unnecessary litigation cost at both ends.
The Federal Board of Revenue reprimanded the field formation several times to avoid such situations and recently also issued directive vide C.No.7(2)S(IR-Operations)/2020 dated 12.10.2021 in which Board directed to sub-ordinate IR officers to avoid unnecessary litigations and save costs of various types including opportunity cost, legal remuneration and man-hours of the department as well as the taxpayer. Without prejudice, being playing a positive role for the purpose of sort out this alarming situation, Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 contemplates the proceedings of this Hon’ble Court as judicial proceedings to the extent of Section 193, 196 and 228 of the Pakistan Penal Code. These referential sections of Pakistan Penal Code in Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 is not used for decorative purposes and Section 224 of the Ordinance, 2001 is inserted by the legislature for the purpose of mitigate the repentant.
He further stated that Section 224 of the Ordinance 2001 is reproduced hereunder 224.Proceedings under the Ordinance to be judicial proceedings Said that any proceedings under this Ordinance before the Commissioner, Commissioner (Appeals) or Appellate Tribunal shall be treated as judicial proceedings with the meaning of section 193 and 228 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (Act XLV of 1860), and for the purposes of section 196 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (Act XLV of 1860).As it is very clear that proceedings of ATIR is judicial proceedings and the powers of Section 228 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 for the purpose of protection of dignity either through punishment with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or impose fine or both. Section 228 of Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 is also reproduced hereunder for the sake of clarity and broader view of picture: Intentional insult or interruption to public servant sitting in judicial proceedings. Whoever intentionally offers any insult, or causes any interruption to any public servant, while such public servant is sitting in any stage of judicial proceedings, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to three thousand rupees, or with both. He further stated that continuous non complainant attitude of IR officers of Multan tax office towards
