Schemes for rewarding tax officials: FBR seeks Revenue Advisory Council approval

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has drafted four new schemes for rewarding tax officials with outstanding performance and sought their approval from the Revenue Advisory Council. Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that the FBR had issued instructions to the Director General, Human Resource Management (HRM), for early finalisation of these schemes to encourage tax officials for increasing revenue collection and bringing new taxpayers into the tax net.
The proposed schemes are Quarterly Reward Scheme, Annual Reward Scheme, Bi-annual Reward Scheme and Man of the Month Scheme. The Revenue Advisory Council, headed by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, would give the final approval of new reward schemes. Recently, the HRM Director General presented a quarterly reward scheme before the tax authorities, which was discussed in detail.
During discussion FBR member Muhammad Ramazan referred to his knowledge about a similar scheme in Singapore where the government gave a certain percentage of the total revenue to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), which was market-based salaries and special bonuses to the employees, showing outstanding performance. The IRAS had also launched a scheme of service where all officers can progress to higher-level jobs on the basis of their abilities, performance and readiness for the next level.
Even in Honk Kong, the government has allowed the tax officials to do private business. Along with new reward schemes, the FBR has decided that the revenue collection targets for Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) would be rationalised without changing the overall target for 2009-10.
FBR Member, Direct Tax Policy, Member, Strategic Planning and Statistics, and Advisor to the FBR Chairman have also given viable suggestions on the implementation of new reward schemes.
-- Firstly, the reward should be related to performance for which an objective criterion be developed for the guidance of the supervisory officer, helping them in their recommendations for the grant of reward under this scheme.
-- Secondly, the Singapore reward system may be studied and, if viable, be adopted by the FBR.
-- Thirdly, a scheme may also be developed for Man of the Month at the FBR headquarter and each field unit. Under this scheme, each reformed unit would pick one tax official, who would be rewarded on excellent performance monthly.
-- Fourthly, along with the quarterly reward scheme, an annual reward scheme and bi-annual reward scheme may also be developed. All these schemes might be presented before the Revenue Advisory Council for final approval, said the sources.