A seven-member Steering Committee has been constituted under the supervision of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi to expedite the reforms process for restructuring the entire tax machinery and introduce centralised collection of general sales tax (GST) mechanism on services and goods, it is learnt.
According to sources, as many as four more sub-committees have also been constituted to assist and expedite the reform process of main Steering Committee.
On November 13, Prime Minister Imran Khan had assured that tax machinery of FBR would be fully taken on board on creation of proposed Pakistan Revenue Authority (PRA) as well as ongoing re-organization of the Board and other reform initiatives.
The seven-member steering committee on restructuring of FBR comprises FBR members including FBR Members Policy of Customs and Inland Revenue and sub-committees also comprises senior tax officials.
The PM informed the senior tax officials that the revamping of the FBR would not be undertaken without taking into confidence both FBR cadres i.e. Inland Revenue Service and Pakistan Customs Service.
Sources said that task has been given to the sub-committees to look for the future status of the tax authority under the federal government as attached departments, semi-autonomous body or completely autonomous.
The sources said that other issues which the committees will look into relate to recruitment, retention, capacity, remuneration, financial autonomy, organisational structure and work process.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on October 3, 2019 had held an important meeting to approve the proposed structure of the Pakistan Revenue Authority (PRA) and field formations. The plan aims to restructure the incumbent FBR into Pakistan Revenue Authority (PRA) with a deadline of June 2020.
For this purpose, the Ministry of Finance has been preparing a comprehensive framework for the PRA.
Recently, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi stated that the timelines with reference to the 're-organization' of FBR as given in October 3, 2019 letter of the reforms approved by the Prime Minister shall be put on hold. The PM's explicit statement is that reforms in FBR will be undertaken after taking FBR officers on board. "Meanwhile, we at FBR shall strive to collect optimum revenue," Zaidi added.
The PM's letter of October 3 contains following major reforms in FBR and timelines: Establishment of Pakistan Revenue Authority (timeline June 30, 2020); Re-organization and re-articulation of FBR Headquarters (Nov 30, 2019); administrative and functional restructuring of LTUs/RTOs (December 31, 2019); collection of sales tax on services by the FBR (October 30, 2019); enhancement of collection charges of FBR for infrastructure development, automation and HRD (timeline June 30, 2020); nationwide tax assessment and documentation drive (timeline Nov 30), nation-wide survey of immovable properties (October 31), proposal for development of Alternate Border Economy (timeline October 31, 2019) and process for automation of the FBR (timeline November 30, 2019).
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