ISLAMABAD, May 25: Central Board of Revenue Chairman Abdullah Yousuf said on Friday that a special bench of the Supreme Court had disposed of 1,650 of 1,950 appeals related to taxes.

Responding to questions by members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly, he said 293 cases were pending with the court.

The bench was constituted by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to give relief to the taxpayers.

The CBR chairman said some of the cases settled had been pending 30 years.

Mr Yousuf said 82,000 tax appeals had been disposed of dui8rng the last couple of years at the level of collectorates and commissionerates. The CBR now had 1,200 tax appeals regarding direct taxes 2,200 on indirect collection, he said.

Clearance of pending cases helped us reduce the number of commissioners, appeal, from 34 to five and collectors, appeal, from 14 to six, he said. Another collector was likely to be withdrawn in a month or so, he said.

He informed the PAC that 7,950 appeals had been decided in two years at the high courts level. Of 25,000 appeals pending at the tribunal level, 21,414 had been decided. Since 2001, the Federal Tax Ombudsman had handled 9,293 complaints filed by taxpayers and 345 were left decision, he said.

He said the Alternate Dispute Resolution Committees had received 251 applications on direct taxes and 957 on indirect taxes. Of them, 68 applications regarding direct taxes and 223 on indirect taxes were pending.

PAC Chairman Malik Allah Yar Khan appreciated the CBR’s performance.

In reply to a question by a member of the committee, Mr Yousuf said the case of Bahawan Shah, who was allegedly involved in a scandal of billions of rupees, had been handed over to the National Accountability Bureau.

The members were of the view that time and energy should not be wasted on audit paras in which nominal amounts were involved and the committee asked the CBR to do the needful to get them written off.