AN 82-year-old man, who had to wait 15 months for a tax refund of a meagre amount, has received an apology from President Arif Alvi himself, who criticized the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for treating him in a matter meant to “irritate and humiliate the aging pensioner”.
The man tried to seek redressal of the grievance from different forums since October 19, 2020 and ultimately got relief due to the caring attitude and personal interest of the President.
The office of the President stands exalted because of the humble apology that the President rendered to the senior citizen for the wrong committed to him by the bureaucratic attitude of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The case, on the one hand, sends a refreshing message to the layman that he/she can seek justice from the top office and, on the other hand, is a warning to the bureaucracy that its actions and decisions are liable to be scrutinized.
No doubt, the amount involved is a smaller one but it is the tip of the iceberg as far as the issue of seeking refunds from the FBR is concerned.
The pensioner in question was lucky to get relief due to his persistent struggle but thousands of tax-payers do not receive the refund from the FBR every year as most of them do not prefer to apply the refund knowing the attitude of the FBR officials.
Apart from tax-payers, there are hundreds of thousands of people who pay withholding taxes on different accounts and they cannot claim the refund as they are not required to file returns because of their meagre incomes.
President Alvi has done well by describing the said case as ‘maltreatment’ and ‘maladministration’ and directing the Chairman of the Board to take punitive action against the entire chain of decision-makers involved in the case.
We hope that the Chairman would not only take action in this case but also streamline the procedure for refund of the un-adjusted withholding taxes to all.
This should not be a problem as the entire process for filing of tax returns stands digitized and the money determined as refund must be paid back to the tax-payer automatically.
