FBR set to get new chairman

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has summoned the federal cabinet meeting today (Wednesday) with important matters on the agenda.

The four-point agenda includes briefings to the cabinet on the retirement directory, security situation, energy-related matters while two other matters will also be presented during the meeting.

Sources told The News that the transfer of the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) chairman will also come under discussion. Earlier, a summary was moved to the federal cabinet for removing FBR Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashfaque and for appointing Asim Ahmed, an IRS officer of Grade 21, as the new chairman of the board. “Yes, a summary is being tabled before the federal cabinet which is scheduled to meet under the chair of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday (today),” top official sources confirmed to The News here on Tuesday.

The summary has been moved to appoint the FBR chairman for 120 days. Other names in the summary include Nadeem Rizvi and Tariq Huda. The summary states that the government is going to appoint a new FBR chairman for 120 days. It is not yet clear whether the new chairman will be given the charge of secretary Revenue Division or not.

Asim Ahmed, an Inland Revenue Officer (IRS) of Grade 21, had served as the FBR chairman in 2021 for a few months and then was replaced when a data-hacking incident occurred in the FBR. He is one of the good officers of FBR and now the government is going to reappoint him as the FBR chairman. He is on number three on the seniority list of IRS officers. Earlier, Tariq Huda, member Customs, was under consideration for the FBR's top slot, but his name got circulated in a scandal of vehicles, so his name was probably dropped from the list of names going to be considered for the top slot.

The outgoing FBR chairman was on the 17th position on the seniority list of IRS officers and during his tenure, he appointed junior officers at key slots. He had also appointed field officers to major urban centres, who possessed shady records. He annoyed subordinate officers mainly because of his single-track approach.

Dr Ashfaque was appointed as FBR chairman in August 2021 after replacing Asim Ahmed. He had also played a key role in initiating a tax case against the wife of Justice Faez Isa on which former PM Imran Khan had conceded that the reference was a wrong move of his government.

Now there will be a challenge for the new FBR chairman for materializing an ambitious tax collection target of Rs6.1 trillion for the current fiscal year. The FBR’s collection remained good in the first nine months when the imports were rising but now with the compression of imports, the FBR will have to work hard for achieving its desired tax collection target envisaged for the current fiscal year.