FTO Orders FBR to Punish Tax Officers Who Mentally Tortured Female Taxpayer
In a decisive move, the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has instructed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to take immediate action against the tax officers from the Regional Tax Office (RTO) Rawalpindi for their involvement in repeated maladministration affecting registered sales tax taxpayers.
According to the FTO’s order regarding RTO Rawalpindi, the distress experienced by the taxpayer since 2011 has been significant. This case is marked by multiple instances of maladministration.
The details of the complaint reveal that the RTO Rawalpindi unjustly attached the complainant’s bank account and recovered a sales tax demand of Rs. 1,673,244 without adhering to due legal processes.
An in-depth review of the case raised serious concerns about the operational integrity of the FBR. Initially, an audit officer had generated a demand of Rs. 2,552,008 for the tax periods of 2009 and 2010 based on (i) the non-production of records, (ii) discrepancies between Income Tax and Sales Tax Returns, and (iii) inconsistencies in the FBR Web Portal’s E-Folder and Sales Tax Returns declaration.
Following the rejection of the appeal by the CIR (Appeals) on May 31, 2012, the department proceeded to recover Rs. 1,673,244 on June 6, 2012, based on ground (iii). Subsequently, the amount was re-evaluated and reduced to Rs. 1,674,321, according to the FTO order.
Recently, in compliance with the CIR (Appeals-III) Rawalpindi, the Assistant Commissioner-IR A&E, Unit-I (City Zone) RTO Rawalpindi, vacated the previously adjudged liability of Rs. 1,624,321. During the hearing, the authorized representative noted that he had not received the Order-in-Remand, which was later provided to him.
The FTO has directed the FBR to instruct the Member-IR (Operations) to conduct a fact-finding inquiry to identify the officers responsible for this maladministration. Additionally, the Chief Commissioner, RTO Rawalpindi, is to facilitate the refund of the recovered amount of Rs. 1,673,244.
