ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to constitute a panel of experts to identify frivolous cases and take practical steps to resolve all revenue-related cases as soon as possible.

During a meeting to review various options to expedite legal cases, the premier issued this directive to FBR and Law Division officials.

As many as 33,522 cases worth Rs4.7 trillion are currently pending nationwide in various courts and tribunals. It was decided that the panel of tax experts would soon be notified to review the existing cases and recommend the withdrawal of the weak cases immediately. The panel will also suggest those high-potential cases where the department can raise taxes.

The meeting adopted three main decisions to handle the pending cases. It was decided that digital guidelines for assessing officers should be produced so that they could make effective decisions and eliminate frivolous cases.

PM orders formation of experts’ panel to speedily recover stuck-up revenue

The guidelines will be developed in consultation with the tax experts. Moreover, the original assessing officers will defend their cases at appellate tribunals instead of the newly appointed department representatives. It was also decided the search for the appointment of four to five members for the tax appellate tribunal of good reputations would be expedited through competitive exams.

An official announcement of the prime minister secretariat said that the premier instructed the FBR to hire reputable lawyers for tax revenue-related cases.

The PM said the government is speedily implementing FBR reforms, yielding positive results. He also directed a forensic audit of the revenue-related cases. He said officers creating cases on weak or incorrect grounds will be duly punished. However, he said that those who establish cases on merit with honesty and hard work should be rewarded with special prizes.

The meeting was informed that, after the prime minister’s directive, the inclusion of reputable lawyers on the panel led to the resolution of 586 cases in the high courts and 637 in the Supreme Court from July to December last year.

The premier was informed that a litigation management dashboard for higher courts had been prepared in the FBR. However, preparing the tax tribunals management system in the Ministry of Law and Justice is in its final stages and will be launched soon.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2025