December 27, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 22, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has asked the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to stop forcibly registering the taxpayers.

The FTO directed the CBR to ensure that coercive measures should not be applied in future by the tax officials to forcibly register the persons not conversant with tax matters, said an official announcement issued on Thursday.

The Ombudsman recommended to the CBR to reform the procedure of registering the sales tax paying units and educate the shopkeepers and businessmen in small towns about the sales tax law.

The Judge proposed to the tax administration to advise the officers and employees not to pass any order or impose penalty on taxpayers without a service of notice to the registered person or any person against whom any proceeding was instituted.

He further said the tax officials should make a better use of computer facility as a tool for improving the tax administration instead of a mechanical device to decide cases and impose penalty without notice and without applying their mind.

The decisions were taken at the two identical complaints filed by M/s Rizvi Petroleum Service, Kandiaro and M/s Ghausia Petroleum, which alleged that the sales tax department, Hyderabad has wrongly registered them as they did not supply taxable goods.

They further stated that without information the sales tax department imposed penalty on them for not filing monthly tax returns. The FTO in his short order has asked the CBR to set aside the orders of imposition of penalties on the complainants under section 45-A of the Sales Tax Act and direct collector to re- examine the services provided by the complainants and determine whether the services were liable to sales tax or not.