SAPM Dr Waqar Masood's resignation accepted

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has once again reshuffled his economic team with the appointment of seventh chairperson of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) during the last three years and accepted Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Finance and Revenue Dr Waqar Masood's resignation.

During the tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government since August 2018, Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed would be the seventh chairperson of the FBR.

The earlier chairpersons posted from 2018 till date were: Rukhsana Yasmin; Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan; Shabbar Zaidi; Nausheen Javaid Amjad, Muhammad Javed Ghani, and Asim Ahmad.

According to two notifications issued by the FBR, Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed, a BS-21 officer of Inland Revenue Service, has assumed the charge of the post of chairman, FBR and Asim Ahmad, a BS-21 officer of Inland Revenue Service, has relinquished the charge of the post of chairman, FBR/secretary, Revenue Division on August 24, 2021. Dr Masood has resigned and his resignation has been accepted by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

When contacted, Dr Masood confirmed to Business Recorder submission of his resignation to the prime minister and stated that as per media reports his resignation has been accepted by the prime minister.

Sources said that the summary for the appointment of new FBR Chairman and replacement of Asim Ahmed was made part of the additional agenda items of the federal cabinet meeting held on Tuesday.

Sources said that the reforms in the FBR have been very critical for achieving the ambitious revenue collection target for the current fiscal year.

A major reshuffle of senior FBR officials including members is also expected shortly, sources said.

Reportedly, the mishandling of hacking incident at the FBR and the FBR's move to share taxpayers' data with the NADRA have become issues leading to the removal of Asim Ahmed from the FBR chairmanship. Asim would be transferred to another ministry/division.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin visited the FBR Headquarters and received a detailed briefing on cyber-attack on the FBR website as well as on reforms and measures taken by the IT team to improve the FBR's security. FBR Chairman Asim Ahmed gave a detailed presentation to the Finance Minister on the reforms, IT initiatives and other measures.

Asim also attended a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, on Tuesday, and then left the meeting to attend the federal cabinet meeting. Later, he had a detailed meeting with the finance minister at the FBR Headquarters. The new FBR chairman Dr Ashfaque Ahmed is a grade-21 officer of Inland Revenue Service (IRS) and is considered an expert on fiscal issues.

His research work on fiscal issues had been published in internationally reputed magazines. Dr Ashfaque Ahmed currently holds two portfolios- FBR's Member Inland Revenue (Operations) and the Director General International Taxes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021