ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: The Special Bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan will start hearing pending tax cases from Feb 6. This was disclosed by chairman, Central Board of Revenue (CBR), M Abdullah Yousuf, while addressing senior income tax officers.

He said that the bench, constituted by the Chief Justice of Pakistan in December, 2005, had already disposed of about 80 per cent of the over 1400 tax appeals/cases filed in the apex court.

Mr. Yusuf expressed the hope that the special bench will dispose of all the pending appeals in its forthcoming session.

He observed that the cases decided by the bench have already had a trickle-down effect as they have served as guiding principles for the lower courts and tribunals and ultimately helped CBR liquidate its litigation pendency to a considerable extent.

Referring to the disposal of 78,000 tax appeals and adjudication cases at the department level under a crash programme, the chairman directed the tax officials to adopt same strategy and show similar spirit to liquidate the entire pendency at high courts and tribunal level.

Clearance of pending litigation cases at the department level has helped CBR reduce the number of appeal commissioners from 34 to even and utilise the services of the withdrawn officers in a more productive manner.

He was of the opinion that the introduction of self-assessment scheme across all taxes have already minimised the chance of any litigation in future.

He said that the economic buoyancy has considerably contributed to growth of revenue collections.

He, however, felt that still a lot needs to be done as major issue confronting with CBR at present is enhancement in tax-to-GDP ratio.

“We have to raise its present level by organising and equipping ourselves as an efficient and transparent organisation and do what we are expected under the economic policies of the government,” he added.

He advised the officers to respect the compliant taxpayers.

“We must ensure that he is not unduly harassed. We have to create an environment in which taxpayers get the service and feel “facilitated,” he added.

He also referred to a recently published report of the Transparency International, which has improved CBR’s standing by downgrading it from 3rd to 5th in the list of 10 corrupt departments of the country.