The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to ensure quality control and maintain bug-free system integrity during the point of sale (POS) lucky draws.

According to an order of the FTO issued on Monday, a complaint was filed against the FBR for sanction of the POS lucky draw amount, won in October 2022, through balloting No.10 of FBR’s POS lucky draw prize, as the payment was not received by the complainant.

The FBR responded that the complainant did not win any POS prize. The Chief Manager-lR (Ops), PRAL, Islamabad stated that the issue was due to a temporary system bug, which has been fixed, and the prize winner status can be checked from FBR’s website.

The FBR and PRAL stated that only iOS (iPhone) users received the message from PRAL, however, Android users did not receive any such messages, as the software for iOS and Android is separate and independent of each other.

Chief Technology Officer, PRAL, Islamabad submitted that the complainant has not won the prize in any POS balloting but due to some technical error, he wrongly saw the mirror image of the screen of the actual POS prize winner.

During the investigation, it transpired that the issue happened due to a system bug, which started reflecting the mirror image of the screen of one of the winners to any individual, who would enter the point of sale dashboard of the Tax Asaan App. The failure of the system impacted various users, which needed a fact-finding inquiry, which has been conducted by PRAL.

FTO stated that it is clear that the appearance of the system bug had adversely impacted multiple taxpayers including the complainant. This reflects neglect, inattention, incompetence, and inefficiency, in the administration or discharge of duties and responsibilities of FBR and PRAL and falls under the ambit of maladministration under Section 2(3)(ii) of the FTO Ordinance, 2000.

FTO has directed Member (IT) to examine the fact-finding inquiry report dated 12.05.2023 and reprimand all concerned PRAL officials and issue a final warning to them, to ensure that absolute quality control and bug-free system integrity is maintained in the future failing which necessary disciplinary proceedings would be initiated against them, as per provisions of law.

Source: Pro Pakistani