[QUOTE=Ansar Abbasi;35113]
Ansar Abbasi
Thursday,July 11, 2013
ISLAMABAD: Politicised top level appointments, incompetence of key FBR officers and inter-service rivalries between the income tax group and the customs officers are considered the main reasons for the unprecedented shameful shortfall of Rs440 billion in the last fiscal year but the Nawaz Sharif government has shown no interest to order a probe into the matter.
Some insiders in the FBR demand a complete inquiry to identify the problems, and insist that because of controversial top appointments the tug of war between the income tax officers and customs officers has attained new heights during the last several years and has thus badly affected the body’s performance.
For generating new avenues of revenue and for tapping the existing sources, these sources said that the FBR should function as an effective agency. In fiscal year 2012-2013, the FBR collected Rs1,941 billion against the target of Rs2,381 billion, resulting in shortfall of Rs440 billion. “There are multiple reasons for the short fall, such as incompetence, ineffectiveness, institutionalised corrupt habits and postings of officers, issuance of bogus and fake refunds, lack of automation, failure to broaden the tax base, absence of monitoring system to keep a check on officers, absence of proper audit (both audit of income and withholding taxes), frequent transfer and postings, abrupt changes in jurisdiction etc.,” a source said.
He said, “However, the major reason is the tug of war between customs officers, who have joined inland revenue services, and the erstwhile income tax officers, who are now amalgamated in a new service group called Inland revenue services.”
Previously, there were two groups: Customs and Excise group dealing with customs , federal excise and sales tax; and Income Tax group. During the last PPP government, the inland taxes (income tax, sales tax and federal excise) were combined in a new service called Inland Revenue Service (IRS) and the import and customs duties were relegated to Customs group. All the officers of Income Tax and Customs were given option to join the IRS.
The income tax officers joined the IRS en masse while a few customs officers also joined the service but it all led to heightened inter-service rivalries between them. The Income Tax group and Customs group hardliners sitting in top offices of the FBR headquarter entered into a cold war for their respective and their group’s self enrichment, self aggrandizement and self projection at the cost of national interest.
Mostly, these senior officials have been hatching conspiracies against one another. They were hurting each other’s domain through frequent and against the merit postings and transfers. Besides frequent transfers, changes in jurisdictions also became routine business. One group officers curtailed the jurisdiction of the other group to settle their scores.
During the chairmanship of Salman Siddique, these sources said, the Income Tax officers targeted the officers of Customs group through frequent transfers and postings. The appointment of Ali Arshad Hakeem as FBR chairman, who was primarily from Customs group but had later resigned as an Additional Collector in BPS-19, brought a bad time for the officers of income tax.
Later a petition was filed against Ali Arshad Hakeem by the Income Tax officers, which led to his removal. The government then appointed Ansar Javed as FBR chairman during whose tenure, it is said, the Customs officer were on the target of the Income Tax officers. The Customs officers were frequently transferred in the months of April and May 2013.
Now the PML-N government has appointed Tariq Bajwa as new FBR chairman. Belonging to the DMG, the officer is said to be in a neutral position to overhaul the FBR in the best interest of the institution. In particular, the new chairman is expected to select a team of his members on the basis of competence, integrity, varied experience and having different backgrounds to ensure the impartiality of the top management for better efficiency and performance of this top tax collecting authority of the country.
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