ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tax Advisors Association (PTAA) has approached Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi against practice of the tax department to withdraw the money from the bank accounts of taxpayers after attaching their accounts when the matter is subjudice before Appellate Commissioners.
In this regard, Chairman PTAA Javed Iqbal Qazi has written a letter to the PM on the subject of ‘conduct of the FBR officials towards taxpayer in the country.’
According to the chairman PTAA, it is submitted that due to arbitrary and illogical collection targets given for collection and the subsequent mal-planning of Federal Board of Revenue, the taxpayers are being harassed by the field forces, especially on the following three issues:
The first issue is the illegal withdrawal of tax from the bank accounts of taxpayers after attachment of bank accounts. It is a practice of the tax department to withdraw the money from the bank accounts of the taxpayers after attaching the bank accounts of the taxpayer when the matter is sub judice in appeal before Appellate Commissioners. Although the high courts of all the provinces have held on the basis of settled principle of the law that access to justice is a fundamental right of a party moreover, an assessee should not be forced to pay an arbitrary tax demand created by a revenue authority unless the order creating such demand has undergone the scrutiny of at least one independent forum.
