KARACHI: In order to facilitate the taxpayers, the Federal Tax Ombudsman Secretariat has set up a Facilitation Desk of the FTO in its premises, which was formally inaugurated by Tax Ombudsman Dr Jah.
Director General FTO Secretariat, Mr. Khaldun ul Haq, President ICCI Mr.Mohammad Shakeel Munir, Senior advisor Ms. Sarwat Tahira Habib, Senior advisor customs Dr. Arslan Subuctageen, Senior Advisor Media, Mr.Majid Qureshi were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Dr Jah said, “Our major objective is to show respect to taxpayers, with the establishment of Facilitation Desk, taxpayers would now be able to avail all Customs/tax related services and get their issues resolved within the FTO’s premises at Islamabad. Protecting the interests of taxpayers is the key priority of this organization and we are constantly providing relief to the taxpayers by carrying out independent investigations about the maladministration by functionaries administering the federal taxes.
He said the FTO would work with the FBR for setting timelines for tax cases to ensure their timely disposal.
Dr. Asif Mehmood Jah while giving briefing to media at the occasion said that the performance has been good in six months.
About 3,000 complaints were received, out of which 2,650 have been redressed. The time for redressal of complaints has been reduced from 68 days to 40 days, he added. He said that the FTO office was not only handling taxpayers’ complaints but was also checking maladministration in tax matters through own motion investigations and inspections.
More than 75 own motion cases have been taken up during the last sixth months, he further added.
To provide quick and cheap justice to taxpayers, FTO is also contacting the taxpayers through social media.
President ICCI, Mr. Shakeel Munir said that the appointment of Business Advisors by FTO has proved to be a welcome initiative which has not only helped in resolving tax issues but also brought the business community together with FTO. It has helped in promoting a favorable tax culture. A question and answer session followed by the briefing.