An exporter has been penalised by the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) for lodging a meritless complaint, which upon investigation revealed the company had wrongfully availed fiscal benefits through a large volume of misdeclared export consignments.
According to a report today, the case, adjudicated under the Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance, 2000, centred on a company’s request to rectify what it described as a “clerical error” in its customs documentation under section 155R of the Customs Act, 1969.
The complainant contended that numerous Goods Declarations were inadvertently filed under the Commercial Exports category instead of the correct Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS) tab, asserting it was a simple mistake for which a formal correction application with supporting evidence had been submitted.
In their formal response to the Revenue Division, customs officials maintained that all enforcement actions, including the cancellation of the firm”s EFS authorisation, issuance of a show cause notice, and initiation of audit and recovery proceedings, were executed strictly in compliance with legal procedures.
The authorities further argued that the issue did not constitute “maladministration” as defined by the governing FTO ordinance.
An examination of the case record and submissions during the hearing uncovered that a substantial number of export consignments had been declared outside the EFS regime. The FTO found the discrepancy involved a large volume of declarations, leading to the improper acquisition of financial advantages.
Consequently, the Ombudsman concluded that the customs authorities had acted lawfully and that no maladministration had occurred. The complaint was officially dismissed for lacking merit.
In a decisive move, a penalty was imposed upon the complainant under section 22(2) of the FTO Ordinance. The company has been directed to deposit the fine within a stipulated timeframe, with failure to do so potentially triggering recovery actions under the Customs Act, 1969.