February 12, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 10, 1423

ISLAMABAD, Feb 11: The inquiry committee has recommended to Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to take necessary action against two deputy commissioners of income tax (DCITs) for showing gross negligence in duty causing harm to a taxpayer.

The committee was constituted by regional commissioner of income tax (RCIT) corporate region, Karachi in compliance with Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO)’s decision. The aim of the committee is to fix the responsibility regarding misplacement of books of accounts of Medicare Pakistan (Pvt) Limited, Karachi.

According to the inquiry report submitted to the CBR, the committee recommended that deputy commissioner of income tax (DCIT), Akhtarul Islam might be censured for negligence of duty for retaining the books of accounts in his office for 14 months and not returning them to Medicare Pakistan (Pvt), Limited.

The committee further said that a warning might be issued to DCIT, Maqbool Jehangir for negligence of duty, with the advice to be careful in future.

It further said that no fee should be paid to Abdul Wahid and Company (CA) for the audit of accounts, as was agreed in this case, as the first and the foremost mistake was committed by them as they failed to return the books of accounts to its legitimate owners and instead passed on the same to the DCIT’s office.

The case of the complainant was outsourced under section 4A of the income tax ordinance 1979 and was assigned for audit to the said company. During the course of audit, the books of accounts and other records pertaining to the assessment year 1998-99 were requisitioned and retained by the auditor for scrutiny.

After completion of assessment, the said books of accounts and allied record was handed over by the auditor to the concerned department officer without the consent of the taxpayers. During the retention period, the said record was misplaced.