FBR unable to hold meetings with stakeholders

SOHAIL SARFRAZ

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Headquarters situated at Constitution Avenue is not in a position to have any meeting with the stakeholders like business community, tax practitioners and other government departments for the last over two weeks as protesters of the sit-ins of Azadi and Inqilab marches of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) are occupying the Avenue. Sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday that the FBR had received different requests of meetings with the tax authorities, but the same cannot be convened creating immense problems for the aggrieved taxpayers, federations, chambers, chartered accountants and lawyers.

The problems of the taxpayers have increased manifold, as people cannot visit the Board office to give their presentations or remove their day to day grievances concerning the regional tax offices. However, the FBR officials are promptly responding to the telephonic requests of the people to give them as much relief as they can.

At present, visitors are unable to reach the FBR House and average visitors to FBR have come down to one or two persons per day. Despite regular attendance of tax authorities at the Board, visitors remained unable to reach the FBR headquarters now days. Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa and FBR Senior Member Inland Revenue Shahid Hussain Asad are performing their routine official duties on daily basis.

On the other hand, the tax authorities have voluntarily visited Lahore and Karachi to meet stakeholders facilitating taxpayers. On Friday (August 28), FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa is expected to visit Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) Islamabad to review revenue collection.