Complaint lodged against tax auditor for demanding bribe; harassing taxpayer

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received a complaint against Officers of Inland Revenue Services (IRS) for demanding bribe and visiting business premises along with private persons for harassing and threatening to stop processing of refund claims.
M/s Artotec (Private) Limited registered the complaint against an auditor of Zone IV, Regional Tax Office (RTO-II), Karachi for vesting the factory without lawful authority.
It is reported that officer came up with the private tout and started to harass the staff and asked for bribe money and the officer also said that if the demands would not be fulfilled then refund claims shall not be processed.
The complainant said that the IRS officer Abdul Aziz Somroo after realizing no speed money then he demanded for relevant and irrelevant documents.
The complaint sent to the chairman noted that the taxpayer repeatedly asked for legal authorization the visit but the official had failed to provide any acknowledgement.
“This attitude of the officer along with the threatening on the premises shows that he only came to the factory along with his private body guard for his ulterior motives,” according to the compliant.
The chairman has been informed, “We are unable to understand that in what manner your officers are performing their duties and instead of facilitating the businessmen/taxpayers, on whose hard earned money they are living their lives beyond their means, they are creating hurdles in their ways for their ulterior motives.”
The complainant warned the FBR, “We are bringing this fact in your knowledge, so that, in future such kind of illegal actions shall not be taken by any of your subordinate. And if such an action is taken in future, we assure that an FIR will be registered against the person or any other legal methods will be adopted to restrain such kind of illegal visit/harassment.”