The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has proposed new provisions in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) law 2007 to combat corruption, putting in place integrity checks and system to form basis for promotion, incentives and transfers/postings of tax officials and employees.
Sources told Business Recorder on Saturday that the financial and operational autonomy of the CBR would be sought from Ministry of Finance taking into account the revised draft. The CBR members have reviewed the draft of the FBR submitted by Ahmed Bilal Sufi, a legal advisor of CBR.
The Board would shortly convene a meeting to pick points from the draft submitted by its legal advisor, which would be placed before the federal Cabinet. The proposed law is comparatively short as compared to the earlier compendium drafted by the CBR Legal Wing.
Following are some of the salient features of the revised law: Federal Board of Revenue would comprise maximum seven members to be appointed for a period of three years. Chairman of the FBR would also be appointed for 3 years period, which is extendable for another three years. The FBR would constitute an executive committee under the supervision of the chairman.
Federal board would be empowered to independently determine its own policies for recruitment, salaries, investment and operational methodology. It would be empowered to prepare its own annual budget and submit its report about the activities to the President every year. Annual account reports would be submitted before the Ministry of Finance as well.
The FBR would be bound to dispose of complaints of taxpayers within 30 days of the filing of representations about mal-administration and misbehaviour by any tax officer. Similarly, the board has to decided matters pertaining to Sales Tax Act, 1990; Income Tax Ordinance 2001 and Federal Excise Act, 2005 within the said period. Tax authorities would also be restricted to initiate immediate action in cases of unnecessary delays and hardship caused during administrative process of the department.
New mechanisms would be in place to remove grievances and complaints of the taxpayers. The law would allow the CBR to adopt modern effective tax administration methods, information technology systems and policies to consolidate self-assessment, minimise interaction between taxpayers/collectors, widen tax base and proper enforcement of penalties.
Sources said that the proposed law would also empower the board to set up subsidiary departments and engage any person or entity on a contract basis to carryout a particular assignment. It will allow the CBR to independently ink any agreement, contract and MOU with outside body, private entity, international organisation, institution and donor agency.
The FBR has proposed ample powers for the Human Resource Management (HRM) Wing for smooth implementation of the HR related policies. It would allow the authorities to independently chalk out the voluntary severance scheme including Golden Handshake for CBR employees.
The wing would be empowered to transfer any official to any post in the subsidiary company. The law would also empower the board to initiate any action, issue rules/regulations, guidelines and code of conduct etc. It would empower the HRM Wing to transfer, select or post official or employees against any post and evaluate employee''s performance periodically to ascertain his fitness to retain the post.
Powers to give incentives against any post would be available under the new law. Other provisions of the law relate to the legal areas and administrative matters under the proposed FBR organisation, sources added.