FTO Disposes Of 2,297 Complaints In 4 Months

ISLAMABAD, Jun 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Jun, 2023 ) :The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) disposed of around 2,297 tax-related complaints during January-April 2023, showing an increase of 64.42 per cent compared to the same period of last year (2022).

According to an official document available with APP, compared to the corresponding months of 2021 during which the FTO Secretariat disposed of 769 cases, the disposal rate witnessed a 198.6 per cent increase in 2023.

"A comparison of first four months (January to April) shows a remarkable upward trend visa-a-vis registration and disposal of complaints," says a quarterly report released here by the FTO.

According to the report, as many as 2,467 complaints were registered during 2023 compared to registration of 1,784 in 2022 and 903 in 2021, posting a considerable growth of 38.28 per cent and 173.2 per cent against 2022 and 2021; respectively.

Due to consistent efforts and effective coordination with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), implementation of FTO recommendations jumped to 1,513 in 2023, showing an upward trend of 172.6 per cent compared to 555 in 2022 and 179.6 per cent compared to 541 in 2021, the report says.

"This shows more and more trust of the taxpayers in the FTO organization and also an outcome of the robust awareness campaign undertaken by the FTO Secretariat in the last one and a half years," it says.

It is pertinent to mention, the FTO has been endeavoring for redressing grievances of the aggrieved taxpayers occurring as a result of the maladministration of tax functionaries of the revenue division.

The FTO had also launched a public awareness campaign to reach out to existing and prospective taxpayers for building their confidence in fulfilling their national obligation by paying due taxes in the national exchequer.

A helpline of the FTO "051-9212316" is operating from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. during the working day (Monday-Friday) to guide the taxpayers about the types of complaints the FTO deals with and how to lodge online complaints through its official website.

The FTO has also been helping FBR to recover revenues as the secretariat while concluding an inspection activity assisted the board to recover around Rs5.5 billion stuck-up revenue in steel sector cases.

Meanwhile, according to the breakup figures, FTO registered of 558 complaints in January, 609 in February, 714 in March and 586 in April 2023.

Likewise, the Ombudsman Secretariat disposed of 487 cases in January, 593 in February, 590 in March and 627 in April 2023.

As far as the implementation of recommendations of FTO is concerned, these were recorded at 313 in January, 302 in February, 568 in March and 330 in April 2023, according to the report.