KARACHI, Feb 9: Speakers at a seminar have demanded that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should create a slot of Dispute Resolution Commissioner, who should be well versed with the affairs of Alternative Dispute Resolution system.

It was pointed out that officials representing the FBR on the Alternate Dispute Resolution Committee (ADRC) were mostly obsessed with the concept of revenue generation and it was extremely difficult for other members of the committee to change their mindset.

Anwar Kashif Mumtaz, a speaker at the seminar on ‘Experience of ADRC, Adjudication, Appeals and Mediation’ suggested that since members of the ADRC work voluntarily and have no required training for such assignments it retards the system and make it inefficient.

He also alleged that FBR took a lot of time while responding to the ADRC decisions and there is a plenty of pendency, which discourages taxpayers to go for the ADR system.

Despite the fact that ADR have helped to minimize litigation for being cost effective the world over but in Pakistan it has yet to catch the eye of taxpayers, therefore, there was greater need on the part of the FBR to propagate the system, he added.

The ADR system, he said, is a flexible process of mediation conducted by a neutral person(s), who assist parties in working towards a negotiated agreement of a dispute. The main objective of ADRC, Kashif Mumtaz said, is to bring both the parties closer by removing them from their fixed positions so that they could focus on issues while keeping their mind fixed on future gains and losses.

He said people were sick and tired of long litigations, particularly when courts are not performing well and take too long time in decision making. Whereas, the ADR system is cost effective and is also a speedy process and does not need enforcement.

Abdul Qadir Memon, president Income Tax Bar Association Karachi (ITBAK) said that around 1,600 applications had been received by the FBR for ADRCs and around 40 per cent were still pending. Elsewhere in the world, he said pendency under ADR system is almost zero.

He further said that in most of the cases taken up by ADRC the serving officers of the taxation department defended the departmental action. Mr Memon suggested that there should be only a panel of three reputable professionals and taxpayers, who possess expertise of applicants business. The FBR may depute departmental representative to defend the case, he added.

Mumtaz Ahmad, the member legal FBR could not attend the seminar due to some urgent assignment but his paper was read by Dr Tariq Masood, additional commissioner audit.

He tried to defend the FBR and said it was not true that a large number of pending cases are with the board. He also explained different clauses and reasons for setting up ADRCs, which is presently getting popular all over the world.