HYDERABAD: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has welcomed a dedicated Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) operations desk in Karachi to address taxpayer concerns, while urging the immediate integration of Hyderabad and Sukkur’s Regional Tax Offices into the system.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Adeel Siddiqui, a member of the FPCCI Executive Committee, said that under the new mechanism, all RTOs in Karachi report directly to the desk for swift resolution of tax-related grievances. He described it as a positive step towards improving tax facilitation and reducing the backlog of pending cases.

However, he expressed concern over the exclusion of the Hyderabad and Sukkur RTOs from the initiative.

Mr Siddiqui said Hyderabad was Sindh’s second-largest industrial and commercial hub and that its RTO alone contributed approximately Rs110 billion in tax revenue to the national exchequer.

Demands inclusion of Hyderabad and Sukkur RTOs for fast-track resolution

He emphasised that taxpayers in the two cities faced the same challenges as their counterparts in Karachi, including delayed sales tax refunds, pending audit cases and administrative bottlenecks, but were denied access to the fast-track resolution mechanism available to Karachi-based businesses.

He noted that taxpayers from across Sindh had previously been required to travel to Islamabad to meet the Member (Operations) to resolve administrative bottlenecks. An additional post of operational chief had since been created in Karachi specifically to facilitate Karachi-based businessmen and spare them the exhausting and costly journey to the federal capital.

He regretted that, despite the creation of the new post, taxpayers in the rest of Sindh were still required to travel to Islamabad to resolve similar issues. He argued that if the operations desk was based in Karachi, the business community in other parts of the province had no reason to keep bearing the burden of travelling to the federal capital.

He said extending the desk’s jurisdiction to Hyderabad and Sukkur would enable taxpayers there to resolve their grievances in Karachi, saving them unnecessary travel and financial losses.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2026