Taxpayers should not be harassed: IHC CJ

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Athar Minallah has said that taxpayers should not be harassed as it hurts the economy.

He said that tax collectors can also raise revenue without being harsh while taxpayers should discharge national obligation by honestly paying taxes which is imperative for national development.

Chief Justice IHC Athar Minallah said this while speaking at a function jointly organised by Rawalpindi Islamabad Tax Bar Association (RITBA) and Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) to announced provision of free legal aid to taxpayers facing harassment.

He said that taxpayers would be provided relief by adopting the procedure of Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee (ADRC) and file their tax matters before the ADRC for early resolution of their disputes.

President of RITBA Syed Tauqeer Bukhari President PTBA Abdul Qadir Memon noted tax expert Hafiz Muhammad Idrees and others also spoke on the occasion. They informed about some cases of harassment threw light on providing legal aid to deserving taxpayers and vowed to end harassment of taxpayers by the tax department. The speakers said that there are a lot of corporate and tax cases pending in the IHC therefore IHC should appoint a tax expert as judge of the high court following the suit of Sindh High Court and Lahore High Court. They also demanded to increase the number of judges in the IHC to provide relief to masses and taxpayers.

The meeting was also attended by office bearers and members of various tax bars and SVP RITBA Faraz Fazal Sheikh VP Naeemul Haq Sec. Gen Zahid Shafique Syed Tanseer Bukhari Media Coordinator Sofia Akhtar Jamal Akhtar Mian Safeer Ahmed Azhar Hussain Sheikh Habibullah Khalid Masood Malik Tauseef Alam Hassan Raza Baluch and Ijaz Hussain Rathore.