LAHORE: Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) and Balochistan Tax Bar Association (BTBA) have expressed their strong reservation over shifting of 38 major taxpayers from Regional Tax Office Quetta to Large Taxpayers Unit Karachi and terming the move a serious violation of fundamental rights and against the basic principles of Federal Board of Revenue.
A meeting of Balochistan Tax Bar Association was held the other day which was chaired by President Muhammad Asif and Manzoor Ahmed, Senior Vice President of Pakistan Tax Bar Association and all members of BTBA and during meeting Aftab Hussain Nagra President Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) & Habib ur Rehman Senior Vice President Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) was also on board.
As per the resolutions passed by the meeting reservation were expressed over shifting of 38 major taxpayers from Regional Tax Office Quetta to LTU Karachi vide Notification F.No.1(48)Jurisdiction/2014-132522-R dated 05-08-2020 under which the jurisdiction of 38 cases was shifted from Quetta to Karachi
It was said that it is a violation of fundamental rights of the people under Article 10 A of the Constitution and a violation of the principles of the Federal Board of Revenue.
The Associations urged the FBR authorities to immediately shift back the taxpayers to the case about contractors, steel mills and others to Balochistan.
It was discussed that taxpayers have been transferred from RTO Quetta to LTU Karachi without any notice while in the current situation tax payers of Balochistan have been subordinated to Karachi LTU which is against the basic principles of FBR.
The meeting noticed that Regional Tax Office Quetta is fully functional in Balochistan where Grade 21 Officer posted as chief commissioner and met the tax collection targets and paid more tax than the target. The meeting observed that it is next to impossible for both taxpayers and lawyers to cover the distance of 700km for tax affairs.
The federal government imparts the provinces with the budget in proportion to the amount of tax they receive under NFC award and it is always claimed that Karachi is the highest tax collecting city.
The meeting ended and called the move as injustice with people of Balochistan and also recommended that the cases of builders already shifted to Karachi should also be shifted back to RTO Quetta.
