ISLAMABAD: A huge amount of Rs1.276 trillion is stuck up in different stages of tax-related litigations in 31,098 cases, including cases before the superior judiciary of the country.
According to official documents, total stuck up amount of pending tax cases had gone up to Rs1,276.900 billion in all 31,098 cases all over the country up to August 31.
At a time when the country is struggling for increasing tax collection and facing challenge of meeting desired collection target of Rs4,398 billion for the current fiscal year in the wake of revenue shortfall in first three months of the current fiscal year, the top guns of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) are making last ditch efforts to place dispute resolution mechanism to avoid unnecessary litigations.
There are total 8,011 cases pending before commissioners (appeals) with involved stuck up tax amount of Rs203.072 billion. In the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenues (ATIR), a major chunk of cases in the range of 13,437 are pending with amount of Rs663.730 billion.
As many as 7,976 cases have been pending before the high courts of the country with involved amount of Rs358.287 billion. Ironically, there are cases where stay orders were granted for more than six months involving multi-million rupees taxes of the national kitty.
There are 1,676 cases lying before the Supreme Court of Pakistan with involved stuck up amount of Rs50.811 billion. This correspondent made several efforts to contact the FBR’s Member Legal Dr Tariq Masood and sent him a message, but he did not reply.
