Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has been nominated as the Honorary Business Coordinator by the Federal Tax Ombudsman Secretariat, Islamabad to work in coordination with FTO for addressing the grievances of taxpayers and facilitate them in tax matters. Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah, Federal Tax Ombudsman presented the letter of nomination to Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI during a ceremony held at FTO Secretariat Islamabad.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah, Federal Tax Ombudsman said that the purpose of nominating Honorary Business Coordinators from the private sector is to give confidence to the taxpayers so that they could share their tax grievances, problems, issues, conflicts and concerns with them with ease and FTO would act proactively to address them. He said that ICCI should organize more awareness sessions on FTO so that maximum members of the business community could take benefit of its services for redress of their tax complaints. He said that this year, FTO dealt with around 6500 tax grievances. He said that FTO’s decision can only be challenged before the President of Pakistan and 90% decisions made by FTO were complied with by the FBR to provide relief to the taxpayers. He said that former President ICCI Muhammad Shakeel Munir had developed close liaison with FTO as Honorary Business Coordinator and hoped that Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari would further strengthen his coordination with FTO to address the tax grievances of the business community.

Speaking at the occasion, Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry thanked Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah for nominating him as Honorary Business Coordinator for FTO Secretariat Islamabad and assured that he would play a role to address the tax problems of the business community that would help them in better promotion of business activities. He said that Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah was taking landmark decisions for the facilitation of taxpayers, which was laudable. He further assured that ICCI would organize more awareness programs on the role of FTO so that the business community could take full benefits of its services to redress their tax issues.

Muhammad Shakeel Munir, former President ICCI said that Dr. Asif Mahmood Jah has set great examples of a dynamic leader of FTO and added that the heads of other business related organizations should emulate his performance to make fast decisions for promoting ease of doing business in the country.

Dr. Arslan Subuctageen Advisor (Customs) FTO, Sheikh Muhammad Ijaz, Hamayun Kabir, Raja Imtiaz, Ameer Hamza, Akhtar Hussain, Rizwan Chheena, Khalid Chaudhry, Zia Khalid Chaudhry and others were also present at the occasion.