Income tax officers strike: no agreement in sight

The strike of the income tax officers in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi entered into ninth day with no agreement in sight. They demanded inclusion of the regional commissionerates in the double pay package notification recently issued by the CBR.
The field officers have alleged that the double pay package has been given to the staff working in the directorates of training, intelligence and internal audit, who are not contributing in revenue collection. The actual contribution is being made by the income tax officers in the field formation, who are not included in the recently issued notification of the double pay package, they opined.
Moreover, they claimed that total strike has been observed in the income tax offices at NWFP province, Faisalabad, Sarghoda and partial strike at Lahore.
The income tax staff in the field formations demanded to include the regional commissionerates in the double pay package notification.
When contacted, senior CBR officials told Business Recorder that the strike has no justification as the board has already approved payment of special allowance equal to 100 percent of the basic salary for all its upcoming reformed field offices ie Large Taxpayers Units, Medium Taxpayers Units, Model Customs Collectorates and Regional Tax Offices.
The employees moving to these reformed field offices, through a selection process (Internal Job Posting), are already entitled to the special allowance equal to 100 percent of the basic salary.
Officials said that the officers and staff of the existing Collectorates of Customs, Sales Tax and Federal Excise and Commissionerates of Income Tax will finally move to the reformed field offices in phases and will be entitled to the special allowance equal to 100% of the basic salary for which necessary approval is already in place.
Similarly, the applications for three Regional Tax Office (RTOs) has been sought from the field formation and the 100 percent increase would be available to all the staff selected for the rest of the RTOs all over the country.
When asked about the income tax officers demand of double pay package, officials said that there is no need to amend the relevant notification, as income tax officers are already entitled to double pay package after going through the Internal Job Posting process.