FTO asks FBR to issue refunds order over taxpayer complainant.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) rejected Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) orders stance that it said was based on "maladministration" and has directed the Bureau to refund the tax payers as per complaint who was conceived by the private firm and his case remained pending since 2019 with FBR.

According to a six-page order of the FTO, available with Daily Times, as complainant has filed applications stating that condonation applications have been rejected despite the by the Inland Revenue Department Gujranwala, working under FBR, that he said was a discrimination. "The complainant was deprived of his fundamental right as duly enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973. Such discrimination is tantamount to maladministration and falls under the ambit of FTO," reads the order.

Muhammad Saleem, Prop: M/S. Saba KitchenWare filed a complaint in FTO to redress their tactics related grievances.

The FTO orders stated that case sales tax refund procedure was changed and a new system, FASTER, was introduced to process and sanction exporters' refund expeditiously that requires a completely different approach than the previously adopted manual system.

The sales tax returns filed under FASTER were facing different problems as data of previously filed returns were not being matched, adding that the relevant department didn't carry forward the refund claimed in previous before introduction of FASTER was for processing.

According to the complaint RTO for resolution of the issue and revealed that revision of returns were required for matching the data. To resolve the issue, the Complainant applied for condonation of delay in filing of sales tax returns but FBR refused to condone the delay in filing of sales tax returns.

In response to the notice issued under Section 10(4) of the FTO. Ordinance, read with Section 9(1) of Federal Ombudsman Institutional Reforms Act, 2013, the Commissioner-IR, Zone-I, RTO Gujranwala submitted parawise comments dated 29.03.2023, wherein it is stated that the FBR has introduced refund processing system namely ERS/FASTER for all the registered persons.

The FBR claimed that the complainant has not mentioned the issue being faced in the system. Later on, applied for condonation of delay for revision of sales tax returns for various periods and FBR rejected the same grounds.

The FTO...