ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: President Mamnoon Hussain on Thursday urged an effective strategy to resolve tax related issues of the people and asked the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) to benefit from the experiences of other countries in this regard.
Talking to the FTO Abdur Rauf Chaudhry who submitted him the Annual Report-2016 at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad, the president expressed satisfaction over the report and appreciated various initiatives taken by the FTO to improve the performance of the institution.
The president said that the FTO plays a positive role in increasing national revenue by building taxpayers confidence and by addressing systemic issues. He commended the role and performance of the FTO in addressing the grievances of the tax payers since its establishment in year 2000.
Mamnoon Hussain said that relief in tax refund should be provided to small business enterprises to enable them contribute in country’s development.
President Mamnoon stressed strict implementation of tax laws to discourage tax evasion and appreciated timely resolution of problems with average disposal been reduced to 49 days from 63 days in 2015.
The president also expressed satisfaction on restructuring of consultative committee of the FTO and on complete operationalization of regional offices of FTO in Faisalabad, Multan, Sukkur and Abbottabad.
The president hoped that the FTO Secretariat would continue efforts to serve the people by further improving performance.
Earlier, the FTO briefed the president that the number of complaints received by the FTO during 2016 was 1768, an increase of 15 percent as compared to 2015. The number of complaints resolved in 2016 was 1807, 12 percent more than 2015.
He said that 79 percent of complaints were decided in favour of tax payers, and 84% decisions of the FTO accepted by tax payers and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) without any review.
