Rs1.276 trillion stuck up in tax-related litigations in 31,098 cases

ISLAMABAD: A whopping sum 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, The News has learnt.

Relevant documents available with The News disclosed that the 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 the 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.

However, a top official of the FBR told The News in background discussions that total pending amount in different stages of litigation was not so huge because it seems that multiple accounting was being done to reach at the amount of over Rs1.2 trillion. However, he did not share any exact amount and even tried to convince this correspondent not to file this story.

He said that the FBR’s new team placed by the PTI government was making efforts to place the dispute resolution mechanism to end increasing litigation and jack up tax revenues for meeting pressing requirements of the country.

A reputed tax consultant, Mohsin Abbass, when contacted, said litigation audit of the FBR was needed keeping in view enormity of litigation against many government departments. He said most of the problems are in the internal system if any institution is willing to probe. He said there is a need to analyse reasons of litigations and remove them first. “It’s just like our audit reports, which shows trillions of rupees loss, which ultimately comes to millions by end of the day,” he added.

Another tax expert suggested that the FBR should work out an effective strategy for early disposal of cases where courts granted stay over six months, by invoking Article 186 of the Constitution and applying for early fixation of cases in higher courts.

Under the Article 186 (Advisory Jurisdiction) of the Constitution, if, at any time, the President considers that it is desirable to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court on any question of law which he considers of public importance, he may refer the question to the Supreme Court for consideration. The Supreme Court shall consider a question so referred and report its opinion on the question to the President.