Under the new performance evaluation strategy, performance of CBR officers would not be judged with the yardstick of revenue targets but with the amount of facilitation provided to the taxpayers and development of their subordinates.
This was stated by Zafar Aziz Osmani, Member, Human Resource Management (HRM), Central Board of Revenue, in an interview with the editorial board of Business Recorder on Thursday.
He said that the positive points for the promotion of a revenue officer would now be the number of days he consumed in processing of refunds and in the grant of appeal effects, and judicious assessment of tax.
Elaborating on salient features of human resource development in the organisation as part of the ongoing reform process which is aimed at enhancing the productivity and efficiency of the revenue officers through proper education, training and automation, he said that another major exercise launched by the HRM department was compilation of job description for 140 job positions involving 26,000 employees of the CBR.
Osmani pointed out that with the help of job description manual an employee would be able to judge whether his skill and education was up to the standards provided in the manual. It would also help the HRM department to organise specific training for employees lacking the requisite skill.
The feedback for evolving a modern evaluation system is being gathered from the leading multinationals and private sector companies by a team of senior CBR officers in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
Member, HRM, cited the example of State Bank of Pakistan which has changed the performance evaluation from the decades-old Annual Confidential Report (ACR) to a professional management system.
Osmani said the CBR has embarked upon an ambitious programme to train revenue officers from Day One of their selection in the financial cadre of Civil Services.
It has entered into an agreement with IBA to teach a one-year MBA level course to these officers before they are inducted into the revenue service. The first batch of about 30 officers has already started the course.
Similarly, under an agreement arrangement has been made with the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) for teaching of the MBA executive course, with special emphasis on audit and financial management, to the existing CBR officers.
Osmani said that lower cadre employees, from Grade 1 to Grade 16, which number about 24500, would be offered an opportunity to learn modern automation and financial management techniques.
Those unable to cope with modern challenges would be transferred to other government departments.
In reply to a query about the increased wages for employees serving outside the modern tax units, the HRM Member of CBR said that it was not possible to double the emoluments of the entire 26,000 employees. Hence, a strategy has been adopted to reduce the staff through automation.
Citing example of Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) he said that 50 officers were doing the work earlier performed by about 450 officers.
In reply to another question he pointed out that the vast gap in the emoluments of the revenue officers and the private sector finance executives was the root cause of corruption which has become an established culture of the society.
The gap in salaries, which was in the ratio of 1:2 three decades ago, has now increased to 1 to 25. He expressed fear that with this gap people of quality and skill would not like to join the revenue service.
Dilating upon the signs of progress made through the tax reform process the HRM Member said that the model taxpayer unit set up recently in Lahore has taken over the responsibility of 100,000 taxpayers of Zone B eliminating direct contact between the officers and taxpayers.
An LTU will start functioning in Lahore from July this year in Lahore. Model taxpayer units would be set up in five to six locations in the country from the next financial year.
He said that the main focus of the reform process aimed at simplifying tax laws through automation and to minimise contacts with the taxpayers and allay their fears to face the tax officials. It aims to replace harassment and coercion with facilitation, he added.
Under the Customs Reforms project (Care), due to be launched from July this year, about 70 percent containers would be cleared on self-declaration through a risk-based data profiling of importers.
This would eliminate the present practice of manipulation by clearing agents and importers to choose their favourite appraiser and examiner for clearance of goods to their satisfaction.
Elaborating on the procedure for selecting officers for LTUs the Member HRM said that 30 senior officers from all faculties of tax departments had been trained to evaluate (candidates) especially in respect of skill and behaviour.
The evaluation report is sent to the hiring manager who conducts final interviews before giving go-ahead.
The procedure has recently been computerised. The employees would be informed through on-line system which would also enable them to file their candidature through the internet.
The procedure earlier took three months to fill jobs in modern tax units.
Summing up, Osmani said that the efforts for improving the skill of CBR officers have begun to yield fruits.
The success is however a small ray of light in the long and arduous journey of changing the mindset of the employees serving in the organisation for a long time.