Meeting to monitor Revenue Board reform process on February 12

The first meeting of the steering group to monitor the reform process in the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) will be held here on Thursday for effective implementation of reform.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that the CBR chairman would chair the meeting and Member (Sales Tax), Member (Direct Taxes), Member (Customs), Member (Central Excise) and Member (P&TR) would participate as the members of the committee.
The CBR members hired from the private sector will not participate in the meeting, as they have not been given slots in the steering group.
The sources said that the steering group would review the latest position on reform process, particularly ongoing pace of establishment of Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Medium Taxpayers Units (MTUs) in the country.
The committee would ensure that the reform programme is progressing as per the schedule and in the right direction.
The meeting will also resolve issues of minor nature emanating during the reform programme and approve reform-related expenditures.
The office of Member (P&TR) will be the monitoring and co-ordination point for the working of the steering group.
The sources said that the tax officials have identified many deficiencies in the existing structure of tax machinery. These include duplication in the charter of duties, surplus positions in wings and overlaps of functions among different departments.
Fourteen steering committees were recently constituted by the tax authorities to review the overall organisational structure of the board under the restructuring drive.
The steering committees conducted detailed administrative and functional analysis of the CBR to propose adjustments in the organisational structure based on the specific requirements in a revamped set up.
These committees will zoom-in on current organisational structure, existing work procedure and workflow, imbalance in staff development and identification of overlapping functions.
The sources said that the taxpayers needed to exhibit general consent to pay taxes to encourage voluntary compliance, whereas the tax administrators needed to increase the efficiency of compliance procedures and the effectiveness of the taxpayer services.
Keeping in view both these needs, the CBR reform plan places considerable emphasis on the importance of effective taxpayer education and facilitation strategies to encourage tax laws compliance.
This new approach envisages promotion of customer-oriented services to correct the adverse relationship between the taxpayers and the tax collectors.