Hafeez not happy over lack of anti-corruption mechanism in FBR

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Monday showed his dis-satisfaction over lack of anti-corruption mechanism in FBR and directed the tax authorities to place an independent mechanism and make few dozen example for others.

While chairing high-level meeting on FBR’s proposed reforms here at Finance Ministry, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh assigned the FBR authorities power to replace at least 50 known corrupt officers from lucrative field postings and dumped them into headquarters without major assignment in order to penalise them.

According to the sources, it was quite interesting situation when the Adviser to PM on Finance asked the FBR authorities on anti-corruption mechanism existed into fold of tax machinery. He was told that FBR’s Member Administration looked after anti-corruption drive. The FBR also placed Integrity Management Unit. Hafeez Shaikh showed his displeasure and stated that it should not be domain of the member administration because transfer/postings and keeping an eye on anti-corruption were completely different assignments. The Adviser to PM on Finance directed the FBR to place an independent mechanism that would only report to FBR chairman against those involved in wrongdoing activities.

He also directed the FBR to appoint its spokesperson in order to ensure outreach to the public at large with the help of media. Earlier, the FBR in its presentation proposed financial and administrative autonomy to the FBR while remaining within the fold of public sector on the pattern of State Bank of Pakistan, granting more financial autonomy to field offices, reducing the number of FBR’s members from 13 to 8 and allowing FBR to finalise its annual target.

According to official announcement made by FBR after the meeting on Monday stating that an important meeting was held in the Ministry of Finance to discuss FBR reforms. The meeting was chaired by Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and was attended by Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser to PM on Commerce, Textile and Investment, Dr Ishrat Hussain, Adviser to PM on Institutional Reforms and Austerity and Secretary Finance Division. The FBR officers included FBR chairman Muhammad Javed Ghani, Doctor Ashfaq Ahmad, Member IR Operations, Ambreen Iftikhar, Member Reforms & Modernisation and Asim Ahmad, Member IT. Member Reforms and Modernisation gave a detailed presentation to the Committee.

It was decided in the meeting that FBR would submit regular reports on revenue collection along with analysis to clearly bifurcate growth patterns in various sectors. Regarding refunds, new taxpayers, number of POS retailers and resolved complaints, the committee decided that FBR would submit regular reports on this performance indicators region wise to the Finance Division.

The appellate system and court matters came into discussion as well. The meeting decided that FBR would revamp its existing appellate structure to extract maximum stuck-up revenue in litigation at various appellate foras like CIR appeals, ATIR, courts. The meeting decided that FBR would make all out efforts to fully automate Income Tax Refunds and would submit the progress report to the Finance Division regularly.

The matter of simplification of Income Tax Returns was also discussed in the meeting. It was decided that FBR would simplify the Income Tax Returns on sectoral basis and the progress of simplification measures taken by FBR would be submitted to the Finance Division. Regarding monitoring of RTOs, CRTOs and LTUs, it was agreed and decided that FBR would submit regular reports to the Ministry of Finance by providing breakdown of the monthly targets and performance along with trend analysis based on sectors.

The meeting participants acknowledged the necessity of publicising the reform initiatives for awareness of the taxpayers and decided that FBR would make efforts to publicise the reform initiatives and the progress to the taxpayers through mass media to create awareness about the measures taken by FBR.

It was also decided that FBR would also furnish the regular reports about smuggling situation at borders clearly indicating the number and quantity of seized items. The meeting participants agreed to strengthen Integrity Management Unit of FBR to resolve the complaints quickly.

The meeting decided that FBR would submit report to the Finance Division regarding the assignment of monthly revenue targets and how they were being monitored and assigned. Lastly, the meeting also decided to establish a high level Technical Committee in FBR to evaluate all future proposals.