FBR to be trimmed in a week or two

ISLAMABAD: The PTI-led government has decided to bring major changes in the overall structure of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in the name of reform process under which the Board’s headquarters will be trimmed and the number of members will be reduced from over one dozen to just four or five.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has hinted at bringing reforms in the FBR that will be introduced in first or second week of the next month. A blueprint of the ambitious reform plan is moving towards assigning certain officers on the basis of sectors instead of allowing them to deal with all kind of cases under the jurisdiction of Large Taxpayers Units (LTUs) and Regional Taxpayers Offices (RTOs). The shape of FBR will be changed altogether as the government plans to come up with over one dozen sectors such as textile, steel, sugar, cement, real estate, jewelers, auto, retail, wholesale and others with specific structure arrangement. The FBR is shifting towards sectoral DGs and specialists under the upcoming new arrangement, said one top official.

“The government has decided to appoint one Chief Information Officer with assigned responsibilities to coordinate with FBR field formation, Nadra and other entities to establish close liaison and gather all kinds of data for using as tool to broaden the narrowed tax base”, top official sources confirmed to The News here on Saturday. A blueprint of ambitious reform plan in the FBR will be shared with the masses in first or second week of July 2019. The government thinks that after making basic changes in the structure of the taxation laws the structure of FBR requires overhauling and its existing structure cannot deliver on the ground. The government is considering doing away with the Board in Council but there is a need to empower members instead of vesting all powers into the chairman's office. One of the major changes on the cards relates to introducing and placing sectoral-specific director general and specialists because the top FBR management considers that they would have to go on sector-specific arrangement instead of dealing cases in the existing generic form. This scribe talked to half a dozen top officials of the government and all of them were unanimous that on one bottom line with reforms or no reforms if the FBR does not appoint the right man for right job it can't collect Rs5,550 billion in the next fiscal year.

One official said if the government created any dichotomy by assigning officers at top on sectoral basis but brought no changes down the line, the specialists would turn toothless and it might result in creating more mess in the field. Another official said the FBR would have to come up with an implementation plan for the next fiscal year with assigned responsibilities because major changes in the law could not be tracked down without placing an implementation plan. Then this plan must be tracked down on the basis of specified Key Performance Indicators. If this is not done, the next fiscal year target will be impossible to achieve.