The World Bank (WB) has asked the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to conduct survey and take polls of businessmen, traders' associations and medium/small taxpayers for obtaining impartial input on changed tax culture under Tax Administration Reform Program (TARP).
Sources told Business Recorder on Sunday that the WB has submitted a report on the communication strategy being implemented through a consultant from private sector.
According to the WB, third-party validation would really help FBR in convincing everyone of the changed culture under TARP. The voices of businessmen, traders, representatives of chambers of commerce and industry, market associations, salaried and small taxpayers need to be captured while telling the reforms story. For reform challenges requiring behaviour change among both internal and external stakeholders, formal surveys and polls may have to be conducted from time to time to serve as formative research to better inform communications strategy, and to provide benchmarks for desired outcomes.
The WB said that the FBR has made good progress in communicating the TARP objectives with internal and external stakeholders as well as wider audiences. A professional communications advisor has been taken on board who has enhanced the outreach efforts that were previously undertaken in a less cohesive manner. There, however, remains room for further improvement in FBR communications program to broaden the understanding and appreciation of reforms which in turn will increase the ownership of tax reforms, vital for ensuring continuation of reform implementation, the WB said.
The WB pointed out that communications advisor enjoys a good working relationship with senior management of FBR and is seen as an important member of the team. However, to enhance his access to senior management and to keep himself abreast of all developments within the organisation, it may be advisable to physically locate the communications advisor within the FBR head office. This will not only facilitate his participation in import meetings, ie, board-in-council meetings, but will also send the desired signal to all concerned that communication forms an integral part of the reform process. The board may also want to consider whether it makes better business sense to keep the communications unit under FATE, or should it rather be placed under Tax Policy and Reform (TP&R) Wing or some other unit based within the head office. The WB was of the view that the clients/stakeholder analysis is necessary for obtaining input of the business community. At one point, the board was actively pursuing to get an internal survey done in order to ascertain employees' understanding and ownership of the reform process.
It can greatly help the communications advisor to look at this or similar formative research tools to fine-tune the internal communications strategy. If for any reason the internal stakeholders' survey was not completed, the FBR may consider undertaking such a study, especially in view of the project restructuring needs.
In addition to general outreach and communication, outreach materials aimed at targeting audience such as business and trade community, media, tax lawyers, audit industry etc can greatly help in creating communities of practice who can form a support group for the reforms. In this regard training sessions, especially for media representatives can pay huge dividends to the understanding and support for tax reforms.
The WB recommended that it is absolutely essential that all internal and external communications requirements are met and properly understood by all concerned. The 'communications unit' will have a substantive role to play in explaining the project restructuring, its causes and objectives.
The WB added that the board had evolved a comprehensive communications strategy which can now be bolstered by a formal annual work plan complete with communications objectives, desired outcomes, timeline for activity/deliverables, responsibility and budget columns. As the proposed work plan will require input from all units within the organisation, it would ensure that all communications activities are in support of the overall reform objectives, are mainly demand/need driven and will have the required support from relevant units that is crucial for the communications success.
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