ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Justice Saleem Akhtar (retired) has asked the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to direct the assessing officials to compute income tax on the basis of proper records of taxpayers.
The FTO further said the officers should not assess the income of the taxpayers without bringing any material on record, which amounted to maladministration.
According to the judgment, the assessing officer without any records assessed the income of a complainant from other sources at Rs200,000 and Rs250,000 for the assessment years 1998-99 and 1999-2000 respectively creating an unjust demand of Rs36,850 from the complainant.
The FTO in his short decision said the complainant be given an opportunity to substantiate the claim that during the assessment years in question, he was subsisting on the proceeds from the sale of an inherited property at a rate of Rs8,000,000.
The FTO directed compliance of the report within 60 days of the order.
The complainant Mohammad Azam, a resident of Islamabad, stated that the income tax proceedings were initiated in the case on the basis of a frivolous complaint in which the complainant was not even the main person accused of malpractice/tax evasion.
APP ADDS: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) decided 2920 tax- related cases out of 3466 instituted during the past over two years, giving relief to taxpayers, who approached the institution for redressal of their grievances against the tax authorities.
“The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has so far implemented 80% of the decisions made by FTO regarding taxpayers complaints,” Federal Tax Ombudsman, Justice Saleem Akhtar (retired) said this while briefing the newsmen here after addressing the tax officials said.
He said he had emphasised on the tax authorities to concentrate on training and refresher courses of the tax employees to further improve their performance and efficiency and for promotion of tax culture in the country. He also called for completion of records and properly maintaining of “Tax collection register” by the tax authorities for the redressal of the grievances of the complainants.
He said those tax officials should be punished properly and according to the law, who indulged in abuse of power and other corrupt practices in order to restore the confidence of the taxpayers in the revenue department for promotion of tax culture in the country.
The FTO regretted that during the past about half a century the country had not succeeded in developing a healthy, honest and friendly tax culture”.
“Mistrust, suspicion, personal vested interest, greed and indiscipline have overshadowed trust, confidence, truthfulness, patriotism and honesty,” he added. He said the task force on Reform of Tax Administration and Commissions had submitted their reports and recommendations. He said these reports and recommendations agreed that all was not well and the tax administration required drastic changes and overhauling.