ISLAMABAD-President Mamnoon Hussain has urged the Federal Tax Ombudsman for undertaking more vigorous steps and innovative approaches to ensure providing inexpensive and speedy justice to the taxpayers aggrieved by tax maladministration in the country.
The President said this while speaking to Federal Tax Ombudsman,  Mr. Abdur Rauf Chaudhry, who called on him at the Aiwan-e-Sadr Friday to present annual report 2013 of the institution.
Abdur Rauf Chaudhry briefed the President about Federal Tax Ombudsman, its establishment, charter and functions and the various initiatives being taken by the FTO for speedy disposal of complaints of tax maladministration and redressal of grievances of the aggrieved taxpayers.
Highlighting the critical role of the FTO, the President said that the institution of FTO is an important Government organization mandated to redress the complaints of maladministration and rectify injustice done to the tax payers by the tax authorities. He appreciated the role of the office of FTO towards resolution of tax payers’ grievances and problems ever since its establishment in year 2000.
The President assured the FTO of every possible support and patronage in efficient and smooth performance of his mandate.
Abdur Rauf Chaudhry also presented to the President, the annual performance report of the Federal Tax Ombudsman for the year 2013.
According to the report the FTO decided 1856 complaints out of the total 1898 complaints received in 2013. 1438 complaints (77.48%) were decided in favor of the taxpayers, 235 were rejected, 183 complaints were withdrawn and 86 cases were informally settled during 2013.  The report says that 84.21% of the findings/Decisions of the FTO were accepted by taxpayers and the FBR while only 15.79% decisions were challenged. The report further says that an amount of Rs. 8.23 billion was refunded to the taxpayers on FTO’s recommendations.