Tax Chamber Warns FBR’s Latest Transformation Plan is More Chaotic And Corruption-Prone

A tax advisory chamber, Friends of Pakistan, has expressed serious concerns over the ongoing transformation initiatives at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Chief Coordinator of the tax advisory chamber wrote that most of the initiatives under the present transformation plan are proving to be counter-productive and the condition of the taxpayers on ground is bad to worst.

Faceless assessment has been initiated with the slogan that corruption has been abolished but presently, there are more delays than the previous system, and more than 50 percent GDs are going for a second review with Deputy/Assistant Collectors who consume more time than the previous system.

Resultantly, demurrages and overheads have increased tremendously and only such GDs pass in initial steps that are either cleared in the green channel or the palm of some person is greased to process GDs.

The firm proposed that the System Audit of the WeBOC system from the time this faceless assessment is introduced to check

1. delays in clearances
2. overall impact on revenues
3. why there is an increase in the number of Green channel importers?
4. What sort of input DC/AC makes in this present system, or simply wastes time and does extortion.

The firm also stated in a letter that a rating and reward system has been introduced. But this present system lacks transparency as inefficient and indolent workers have benefited, and efficient workers with a good reputation are at a loss.

Moreover, lower staff are clamoring for reward or some extra salaries and staging sit-ins at LTU, Karachi and at Islamabad and that too in the last quarter when entire machinery has to focus on creating more taxes.

The firm also proposed that the ratings may also be shared with the officers rather than keeping it secret and their own ratings for the officers graded upon may also be visible to them.

The present management as well past managements of the FBR failed to achieve the above stated goals due to their inefficiency, mal-administrations and ulterior motives. The firm asked the PM to address the above mentioned matter for betterment of the department.