Islamabad: Tariq Ahad Nawaz, Adviser, Federal Tax Ombudsman visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry and addressing the business community assured them to resolve their tax complaints to provide them relief. He said FTO Institutional Reforms Act 2013 was enacted to provide speedy and expeditious relief to the citizens by redressing their grievances and to promote good governance. He stressed that business community should take benefit of the services of FTO for redress of their tax grievances.
Giving a presentation on FTO performance, he said that in 2017 (up to 30th June 2017) FTO received 1022 complaints out of which 892 were disposed. Similarly, in 2018 (up to 30th June 2018), 901 complaints were received out of which 772 were disposed. He said out of 583 complaints, 457 were decided in favor with only 126 against. It showed the useful role of FTO in addressing the genuine grievances of tax complainants.
Tariq Ahad Nawaz said that FTO has developed a very simple complaint filing procedure as any aggrieved person could file complaint personally or through courier service, email, online and fax. He said all the complaints were promptly acknowledged by the FTO HQs or its Regional Offices online, email, by courier service or by hand, as the case might be. He asked business community to give their suggestions to further streamline the complaint redress system of FTO.
Speaking at the occasion, Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that for improving tax revenue, development of an easy and simple taxation system was the need of the hour. He said an efficient and effective Federal Tax Ombudsman would help provide speedy relief to complainants, promote good governance, reduce tax complaints, improve tax authority performance and enhance tax revenue. He said billions of rupees of taxpayers were stuck up with FBR in tax refunds and stressed that FTO should play role in release of such refunds that would help in addressing liquidity issues of taxpayers.
Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President, Nisar Mirza Vice President ICCI, Zubair Ahmed Malik Chairman Founder Group, Baser Daud, Mian Shaukat Masud, Mian Muhammad Ramzan, Iftikhar Anwar Sethi, Khalid Chaudhry, Mian Khalid and others also spoke at the occasion and gave proposals for providing speedy and expeditious relief to aggrieved taxpayers.
