PESHAWAR: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has demanded of the government to make the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) laws and rules business-friendly to provide speedy justice to the taxpayers.

The demand was made by SCCI president Engineer Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz during a meeting with FTO provincial advisers Abdul Wadud and Tariq Ahad Nawaz at the Chamber House here on Thursday.

According to a statement, the meeting was also attended by the chamber’s senior vice-president Shahid Khan, members of the executive committee and officials of FTO regional office.

Mr Wadud and Mr Nawaz asked the business community to approach their office for resolution of complaints about income tax, sales tax and customs and federal excise duty.

They said that the FTO would continue to play its effective role against the unjust decisions affecting taxpayers. Mr Nawaz said that their office had issued directives to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to simplify the filing of tax returns and issue separate forms of returns for different sectors.

Mr Wadud asked the taxpayers to send their complaints on plain paper along with the copy of CNIC, on which instant action would be taken.

Earlier, Mr Pervaiz called for close liaison between the FTO and SCCI, saying the business community of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was facing a host of difficulties. He urged the FTO to give special attention to resolution of issues of the community of this terrorism-hit region. He said that the FTO laws should be made business friendly through proper reforms so that the issues related to taxes could be resolved on priority.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2019