Finance Minister fails to win over tax officials on FBR reforms

 ISLAMABAD: In a desperate last ditch effort, Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar on Friday visited the Federal Board of Revenue headquarters to convince officials of the Inland Revenue Service (IRS) and Customs Group on the restructuring plan. But these efforts proved unsuccessful. 

During his hours-long visit to the FBR headquarters, only the authors of the revamp plan agreed to implement it, while Akhtar could not get the rest of the IRS and Customs Group officials to agree on his plan. 

There was no answer as to how the proposed plan would help increase the tax-to-GDP ratio. Although, there is a desire to increase the tax-to-GDP ratio, no one knows how to do it. 

The minister reportedly blamed the media for launching a campaign against the restructuring plan and said the concerns of officers would be addressed at the implementation stage. He indicated that the summary would be sent to the Cabinet for approval. 

Sources said that the Chairman FBR while explaining his stand took a stand that no information was leaked from FBR. He said the media obtained information from the minutes of the SIFC meeting and then criticized it when everything became available in the public domain. 

The meeting, which was attended by FBR members, Chief Commissioners, Customs Collectors and all other concerned heads of FBR, lasted for hours on Friday. Only Friday prayers were allowed, but the meeting, which lasted for several hours, failed to reach a consensus on the restructuring plan. 

Caretaker Finance Minister Dr. Shamshad Akhtar in his proposed plan clarified that a new governance structure for FBR would be established through separate Federal Board of Customs and Federal Board of Inland Revenue. 

will be done and DGs from the respective cadres will be appointed as their heads. 

Separate Supervisory Boards for the Customs and Inland Revenue Administrations will be chaired by independent professionals of high caliber and will include public and private sector representation among board members nominated by appropriate criteria and of sound expertise and integrity.