President Alvi for increasing outreach of FTO, appreciates it for providing relief to businessmen/traders.

ISLAMABAD -- President Dr. Arif Alvi has urged the need to increase the outreach of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) and create awareness about its role in providing speedy justice to complainants against the maladministration of customs and tax authorities. He said that FTO was performing an outstanding job by providing speedy relief to traders and businessmen against the highhandedness of government authorities.

President Dr. Arif Alvi made these remarks while talking to the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah, who called on him, at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Thursday.

Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah presented the Annual Report-2021 highlighting the performance and achievements of the tax Mohtasib. He informed that during the year 2021, 2816 fresh complaints were registered with FTO, whereas 333 carry forward cases from the previous years were also processed. Out of these,2867 cases were disposed of during 2021, he added. He further stated that 88.14 % of the decisions have been implemented by the concerned quarters. The Ombudsman has decided refund claims amounting to Rs 8499.11 million and the amount was paid to the aggrieved taxpayers by the FBR, he added.

He apprised that in order to facilitate the taxpayers and expeditiously resolve the complaints, FTO had started informal...