Islamabad:Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has launched the software of electronic hearing of tax audit and assessment cases to facilitate the taxpayers. This has been done by enabling and fictionalizing the e-Hearings module in the Iris. The module enables online hearing both form the dedicated hearing rooms established in the field formations and from the places of the taxpayers. Such e-Hearings would be recorded and archived for further legal and administrative utilization.

In the first phase, the module has been launched and tested in LTO Islamabad, RTO Rawalpindi, RTO Faisalabad and RTO Peshawar wherein online e-Hearings through the dedicated e-Hearing Rooms and from the places of the taxpayers, have been enabled. In the second phase, such e-Hearings are being enabled and operationalized for all the remaining field formations as well. FBR has directed all the Chief Commissioners IR to establish dedicated e-Hearing Rooms in their respective field offices by 31st May, 2021. The module will allow the head office to join any hearing at any time without any prior notice for an administrative appraisal of the system.

FBR has further informed that with the introduction of the e-Hearing module, the taxpayers would no longer be required to visit the offices for hearings and such physical hearings in the offices of the officers would be phased out completely. Accordingly, no physical hearings would be allowed with effect from 1st July, 2021 in any of the field formations and all hearings would be conducted through the e-Hearing module.