Islamabad, Aug 3: Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Malik Amjed Zubair Tiwana here on Friday took oath from the newly elected office bearers of Management Board of IRS Officers Association (IRSOA).
According to press release the management board comprised Waseem Hayat Bajwa, President; Naib Ali Pathan, Senior Vice President; Ms. Nafeesa Satti, Executive Vice President; Ali Saleh Hayat Kalyar, Secretary General; Ghulam Mustafa Dogar, Joint Secretary; Sohail Anjum, Press Secretary; Ms. Riffat Aziz, Treasurer and Muhammad Zarar Irshad, Coordinator.
After swearing oath, President IRSOA shared the recommendations to meet the challenges currently being faced by IRS officers. He highlighted the issue of inadequate human resource vis-a-vis the population and number of taxpayers. UK, US, Canada and Japan has tax workforce four times that of FBR, with their population less than half of Pakistan.
To meet this deficiency, 3200 vacancies in BS (1 to 15) are to be filled, 1500 to 2000 new inspectors are to be recruited and 100 to 125 new seats are to be created in BS 20 & 21, he said.He added that FBR has limited outreach across the country with not more than 100 offices as compared to 525 in Japan and 100 in Tokyo alone. 145 District Tax Offices are to be established across the country with the necessary infrastructure, HR and logistics.
He further elaborated the issue of slow career progression especially in BS 19 to 21 which can be resolved through up-gradation of posts of 6 CCIRs from BS 20 to 21, establishment of 4 new directorates of Anti Money Laundering, creation of 50 to 60 BS-20 seats in district tax offices, 6 BS-20 seats of CIR (Appeals) and 75 BS-21 seats for 100 benches of IRS Tribunal.
He highlighted that FBR employees are the lowest paid among all service groups. They get only the frozen performance allowance which is 20% of their basic pay whereas all other federal and provincial service groups are getting 150% additional pay.All FBR employees who are tasked to collect taxes of trillions of rupees must be paid as equivalent to the officers of other groups, he added.
He mentioned that only 0.43% of revenue is being spent on FBR which is the lowest in the world. As per international best practices, the expenditure on tax authority ranges from 1.5% to 2.5% of revenue. Even the Punjab Revenue Authority is getting 2% of revenue targets. Financial autonomy of FBR with single line budget up to 1.5% of revenue target is the most viable solution of this problem which will provide FBR the fiscal space to improve its working conditions and streamline its operations.
Speaking on the occasion, Member PR, Mr. Bakhtiar Muhammad conveyed best wishes for IRSOA to play positive role in promoting the welfare of IRS officers and pledged support to make best possible efforts for the betterment of service in coordination with IRSOA.
