May 26, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 13,1423

ISLAMABAD, May 25: The government is likely to increase legal fees of advocates appearing on behalf of the Central Board of Revenue and its sub-ordinate offices in tax evasion cases.

Official sources told Dawn that a working paper to this effect had already been worked out, which would be approved shortly.

The CBR told the ministry of finance that the cases of tax evasion and fraud involving huge amounts of revenue in appellate tribunals and superior courts were defended by taxpayers through leading legal experts.

While on the other hand, lawyers of ordinary standing are mostly appointed at a very low remuneration by the government, which resulted in poor defence of the cases.

To overcome the situation, the officials said that it was recommended to raise the existing fee scale from Rs10,000 plus 1000 (clerkage) to Rs25,000 plus 1000 (clerkage) for a senior counsel appearing at the Supreme Court in tax evasion cases.

While it was proposed to raise the existing fee scale of an advocate from the current Rs5,000 plus 500 (clerkage) to Rs15,000 plus 500 (clerkage) appearing at the High Courts’ cases.

The existing fee scale of an advocate to be raised from Rs2,500 to Rs10,000 for appearing at customs, excise, sales tax and income tax appellate, tribunals, district courts and federal services tribunal.

The official said that the CBR or its sub-ordinate offices could also engage eminent lawyers with higher legal fee in complicate cases of greater financial implication with prior approval of the competent authority to effectively represent the department before judicial, quasi-judicial fora.

The officials said that the poor representation of the department ultimately resulted in failure of departmental viewpoint and the consequential need to pursue the matter in next higher forums.

To overcome the situation, the official said that the CBR had decided to undertake the issue of enhancement of fees of legal counsels representing the department.