July 29, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1424

ISLAMABAD, July 28: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), Justice (Retd) Saleem Akhtar has asked the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to refund the sales tax amount recovered from a complainant in violation of law.

The ombudsman recommended to the CBR to direct the collector to make the refund to the complainant within 30 days if any interim order or stay order has not been passed by the appellate tribunal.

The compliance should be reported within one week after taking the decision, said the FTO.

The decision was taken on the complaint of Treet Corporation Limited, Lahore. The corporation alleged that sales tax and central excise departments recovered sales tax from them illegally.

It stated that the assistant collector (Audit-I) Central Excise and Sales Tax, division-I, Hyderabad issued a show cause notice on May 8, 2000 demanding the sales tax amounting to Rs0.248 million.

Later on, the deputy collector (Adjudication) has vacated the show cause notice and ordered the payment of the amount to the complainant.