KARACHI – The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has helped tax-payers gain Rs 7.0 billion refunds from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in 2010. FTO dealt a total of 1, 94,000 cases where complaints were not filed. Over the last nine years, tax refunds worth Rs 220 million were given through this office, said Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Shoab Ahmed Saddle during a meeting with members of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Thursday.
He was welcomed by KCCI President Muhammad Shafiq Saeed, Senior Vice President Talat Mahmood, KCCI Vice President Junaid Esmail Makda, former KCCI President Haroon Farooki and former SITE Association of Industry Chairman Jabbar. The Federal Tax Ombudsman said that 1450 complaints from taxpayers were received during the last 10 years, while 1446 complaints were received in 2010. Among them, 1200 complaints have been resolved and the remaining would be cleared by the end of this month.
Complaints filed earlier are already cleared. He announced constituting a steering committee at his office with business leaders from different chambers of the country. If KCCI desired, he added, a separate committee can also be formed to deal with tax issues. Dr Shoab Saddle agreed to the proposal by M A Jabbar that tax judicial system should be separated from the executive at FBR.
