LAHORE: President Asif Ali Zardari has endorsed over 92 percent of the orders of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) against the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) during 2024.
The President’s endorsement to the FTO’s order reflects President’s approach towards taxpayers’ facilitation and encouraging voluntary compliance and documentation. In most of the cases, President Zardari gave orders in favour of the taxpayers and against the FBR.
Senior FTO officials told media at the FTO Headquarters that in 2024, FTO made 12,742 decisions in favour of the taxpayers, but only 1,030 were challenged before the President. The President upheld over 92 percent of the FTO in favour of the taxpayers.
However, in the year 2024, a record number of 13506 complaints were registered with the FTO against the tax functionaries. A total of 12914 complaints were decided from the complaints lodged with the FTO in the year 2024, thereby surpassing all previous records which reflects the confidence of taxpayers in FTO for the resolution of grievances against FBR officials.
In 2024, FTO made recommendations on 13,500 complaints, but only 336 of those were challenged in representations with the President. The President reviewed 379 representations, including some carried over from 2023, and decided 326 cases in favour of the FTO.
An amount of Rs22.79 billion was credited back to taxpayers as refund claim on the directions of FTO in the year 2024. Average time taken for the disposal of complaints was reduced to an impressive 34.11 days in the year 2024.
Over 1705 complaints were resolved in a matter of days, in the year 2024 through informal dispute resolution under sect 33 of FTO Ordinance. The notable surge in the registration of complaints in 2024 is attributed to record 270 outreach sessions across Pakistan’s business community and other institutions conducted by Federal Tax Ombudsman, FTO officials added.
