President lauds FTO's role to facilitate traders; calls for its enhanced outreach.

ISLAMABAD -- President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday, while lauding the Federal Tax Ombudsman's (FTO) role for providing speedy relief to traders and businessmen, called for its enhanced outreach to the people.

The president also underscored the need for creating awareness about the FTO's role in overcoming the maladministration of customs and tax authorities.

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

Dr Asif Mahmood Jah presented the Annual Report-2021 highlighting the performance and achievements of the FTO.

He informed that during the year 2021, 2816 fresh complaints were registered with the FTO, whereas 333 carry forward cases from the previous years were also processed.

Out of those, 2867 cases were disposed of during 2021, he added.

He further stated that 88.14 % of the decisions had been implemented by the quarters concerned.

It was told that the Ombudsman had decided refund claims amounting to Rs 8,499.11 million and the amount was paid to the aggrieved taxpayers by the Federal Board of Revenue, he added.

Dr Asif Jah said that in order to facilitate the taxpayers and expeditiously resolve the complaints, the FTO had started informal resolution of complaints in priority cases under Section 33 of the FTO...