PESHAWAR, April 15: Central Board of Revenue Chairman Abdullah Yousuf has said that law suits pending with income tax tribunals will be reviewed to determine their merit and those lacking valid grounds will be withdrawn. Talking to members of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) on Friday, the CBR chairman said that a total of about 18,000 income tax related law suits were pending with various tribunals of which about 6,000 had been filed by the income tax authorities.
“We have decided to review all these cases so that those which lack solid grounds should be withdrawn to facilitate taxpayers and similarly we are also trying to get finalized all the pending cases being proceeded into the high courts,” said Mr Yousuf.
Regarding the CBR’s policy to effectively deal with the issue of pendency of appeals, Mr Yousuf said that the number of appeals had been brought down by half during the current financial year.
At the start of the current financial year there were around 56,000 appeals filed by taxpayers, he added.
“During the first eight months of the current fiscal year, we decided about 28,000 appeals in fulfilment of our policy to curb the issue of pendency,” he said, adding that “we are looking forward to bring the number down to zero level in the near future”.
In this respect, he maintained, the ‘zero level’ pendency had already been achieved at some of the places and the CBR was pursuing a policy to decide appeals within 30 days.
Responding to issues raised by the SCCI members, he said that the board would work closely with the provincial government and the administration of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) to put in place a mechanism to collect taxes from the business community of Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata).
He said that in his separate meetings with NWFP Governor Khalil-ur-Rehman and Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani on Friday, he took up the issue of tariff disparities caused by the special areas’ status of Fata and Pata.
“They were agreed that the disparities should be done away with and a level- playing field should be ensured for the business community particularly the manufacturing sector of the settled areas,” said the CBR chairman.
In this respect, he maintained, the chief minister had assured him that a special committee would be established under the chairmanship of the provincial chief secretary to look into the issue and put forth proposals in regard to evolving a mechanism for collecting taxes from Fata and Pata.
Talking to newsmen after the meeting Mr Yousuf said that the CBR had also undertaken an exercise to effectively deal with the issue of non-duty paid vehicles plying in Fata and Pata.
“We have asked for re- commendations from the relevant ministries and sooner we get their responses a policy would be put in place to deal with the issue,” he said.
In reply to a question about the persistence of smuggling of foreign goods from Afghanistan despite the deployment of army and a large number of law enforcers on the Pakistan’s western border, the CBR chairman said that it was difficult to effectively put an end to the smuggling because of the porous
