ISLAMABAD - Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Muhammad Shoaib Suddle on Friday said that the FTO had cleared about 200 complaints and refunded Rs 93 million to the taxpayers in the first quarter (Jan-March) of 2010. This he said while addressing a press conference here on Friday. We will try to refund pending Rs 94 million to the taxpayers in next two months (April and May), he said. The target is to dispose of at least 60 percent complaints within 60 days of their receipts in the FTO office, he added. He said, We have cleared 635 complaints pertaining to 2009 and the Federal Board of Revenue refunded Rs 94 million to the taxpayers during the last year. He further said that besides clearing the complaints of the year 2009, the FTO also cleared two hundred complaints of the years between 2005-2008 as all these were inherited to him when he took charge of the Federal Tax Ombudsman in June 2009. Dr Suddle said that the key objective of the establishment of FTO office was to provide quick and inexpensive justice to taxpayers, as it was felt to bid adieu to the archaic manual handling of complaints. Our goal is to raise the standard of quality services to be provided to the taxpayers and to investigate cases of tax mal-administration fairly, independently, impartially and transparently, he informed. He said that a taxpayer could now file his complaint on a simple plain paper without the services of a tax lawyer and practitioner, as the FTO had withdrawn the condition of submitting affidavit for filing a complaint because of the lengthy process and taxpayers were suffered a lot, he added. The real challenge over the past nine months has been to enhance the capacity of the officers of FTO Secretariat and for this purpose; he said, two officers of FTO were sent abroad for learning the best practices. In last few months number of administrative changes and improvements have also been introduced in the FTO Secretariat. We are planning to expand our services across the country and to achieve the objective of Central Development Working Party (CDWP) Rs 140 million was approved for the u- gradation of the FTO office, he said and added that the project would be completed in two years. He said, We also envisaged the creation of video conferencing facility between the FTO Headquarter and its regional offices to increase the speed of our business processes. He said that the FBR was implementing the recommendations of the FTO. He endorsed the implementation of Value Added Tax to ensure documentation of the national economy and broaden tax base for the benefit of the country.