October 6, 2002	Sunday	Rajab 28, 1423

ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has got released Rs695.357 million refund to exporters during the last two years, an amount that had been withheld by the tax authorities for various reasons.

Of these, the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has released Rs488 million refund to the complainant, said Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), Justice (Retd) Saleem Akhtar.

Talking to Dawn, Justice Saleem Akhtar said that the taxpayers who invariably complained of highhandedness and harsh treatment at the hands of the tax officials have started registering their complaints with the FTO for relief.

He said that the FTO till September 30 received 3,068 complaints out of which 2,326 complaints were disposed of. The rest of the complaints were either in the process of hearing or notices were issued to the party concerned, he said.

The CBR has so far implemented 81 per cent of the decisions and the remaining would be implemented shortly, he said.

“In 108 cases, we have recommended suitable improvements in administration and functioning of the CBR aimed at facilitating taxpayers,” the FTO remarked.

In 82 cases, the CBR has taken disciplinary action against tax officials in 82 cases on the recommendations of the FTO.

With regard to procedure of filing a complaint, the ombudsman said that what an aggrieved person has to do is to send his/her complaint on a plain piece of paper containing relevant facts on solemn affirmation or oath. No fees of any kind is chargeable and the decisions normally come within weeks rather than years, he added.

According to the FTO, 1782 complaints filed by the taxpaying community during the calender year 2001. Out of them 955 related to income tax department, 14 to wealth tax, 168 to customs, 112 to sales tax and 90 related to miscellaneous matters.

Justice Akhtar said that relief was provided in 936 cases while 403 cases were rejected.

He said that FTO received hardly 72 complaints from mid October 2000 till December 31, 2000 because of lack of knowledge about the jurisdiction, functions and usefulness of the FTO, he said.

During the calender year 2000, only 10 cases were disposed of by the FTO, Justice Saleem Akhtar said.