KARACHI, Aug 23: Federal Tax Ombudsman Justice (Retd) Munir A Sheikh has said that defiance by any government department to the decisions taken by his offices is a contempt and intervention in the working of FTO.

Speaking at a luncheon meeting organized by the Small and Medium Enterprises Alliance (Samea) here on Tuesday, he said that the FTO did not need stay power because defiance to the decisions taken by his offices was contempt.

He said that the FTO was also receiving complaints against the decisions taken by Alternate Dispute Resolution (ARD) because the tax department did not honour a decision when it went in favour of a taxpayer.

The Federal Tax Ombudsman agreed that after a decision given by his offices the taxpayer should get relief immediately without moving the Supreme Court.

Samea Vice-President Mian Zahid Hussain pointed out that in the current fiscal year budget the government had offered 20 per cent concession to those SMEs which converted themselves into registered companies but the procedure was so cumbersome that not a single SME could meet it.

The FTO was also apprised about the difficulties faced by taxpayers in paying various taxes. The participants also opposed the government decision to collect withholding tax on cheques of Rs25,000 and above and pointed out that it was against the business norms which would discourage the documentation of the economy.

Mr Munir said that during last five years the offices of FTO investigated over 7,000 tax cases and resolved over 85 per cent of them. He said the basic objective of the FTO was to bring good governance in the tax offices and resolve taxpayer problems and protect their rights.