ISLAMABAD: The government is asked to make tax laws tougher, besides rectifying the system by eliminating flaws and loopholes, which cause an increase in number of pending revenue cases in the courts.
Ahmad Dildar, legal member of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) stated this while giving an exclusive interview to Customs Today, adding that the FBR has marked 95 percent success ratio in revenue related cases.
He said that various amendments, which will be made in finance bill for next financial year, in tax laws were being considered. There are 3,365 cases pending with high court and Supreme Court. The member said billion of rupees were stuck up due to the pending cases, adding that the FBR has won in numbers of cases but other parties were taking undue benefits of flexibility in laws.
Saying that it has been a great experience to work with FBR; he said that a ten years experience in other departments has helped him to strengthen the Legal wing of the FBR.
Quoting an example, he said that he Legal wing put up strong and successful defense in respect of the case filed by M/s Agility Private Limited, a Kuwait-based company against the government of Pakistan and saved $650 million of Pakistan.
It may be recalled that M/s Agility was engaged in 2005 by FBR for developing software for automated clearance of import and exports cargo at the Karachi port. Subsequently, the FBR/government of Pakistan terminated contract with M/s Agility in September 2010. The company thereafter filed a claim worth $650 million against the government of Pakistan before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
On request of the FBR, SC has formed a policy to settle the revenue case on a priority basis, Ahmad Dildar said, adding that SC chief justice has assigned task to an additional judge to coordinate with FBR in order to design a strategy and to settle the cases timely. Now, SC is agreed to make a tax bench to expedite the process.
Dildar said that lawyers for contesting the FBR’s cases in the courts will be hired on merit and incompetent lawyers will not be given any task again.
He said that people preferred to pay high fees of lawyers just to avoid taxes but were not ready to pay taxes in the country, where they earned millions of rupees, adding that sometime such elements have to spend money on the cases more than the amount of taxes.
FBR offered flexible system to taxpayers in order to develop friendly tax system in the country, but some miscreants were exploiting such exemption for their vested interest, he said, adding that there was dire need of eliminating the relaxations to finish the backlog of cases.
