ISLAMABAD, March 27: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Wednesday that the government was considering to make the tax laws more transparent for effective resolution of tax disputes.

He said this in a meeting with Federal Tax Ombudsman Justice (retd) Saleem Akhtar. Mr. Aziz said that to facilitate the taxpayers, the government had introduced an ‘honest and transparent tax regime’.

The minister said that it was invigorating to note that the tax ombudsman office was effectively performing function of tax facilitator through resolving disputes and providing relief to the taxpayers.

This would in turn provide comfort and encourage unregistered taxpayers to register themselves, he said.

Shaukat Aziz assured the tax ombudsman of the government’s full cooperation in making the laws even more transparent for effective resolution of tax disputes.

The tax ombudsman informed the finance minister that in the last one-and-a-half year of the establishment of FTO, about 1,700 cases out of 2,000 have been disposed of.

He said that an institutionalized mechanism had been evolved to monitor progress of the cases. Around 42 persons of the tax collecting machinery have been proceeded against for committing excess and relief have been provided to the taxpayers, the FTO said.

He further disclosed that two regional offices, one each at Lahore and Karachi, have been established to provide easy access to the tax-payers for redressal of their grievances.