The Federal Board of Revenue has constituted three teams headed by senior tax officials for the rationalisation of 25,000 workforce at the Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs), Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) and Model Customs Collectorates (MCCs).
Sources told Business Recorder on Saturday that the FBR had already submitted the workforce rationalisation plan to the World Bank (WB) for restructuring under the Tax Administration Reform Program (TARP).
It is not clear that why a new exercise has started which would result in duplication of work under the TARP. The board had submitted a comprehensive strategy on the expected redundant posts and workforce needed for the reformed units to the WB.
A large number of tax officials have been transferred to the reformed units on special pay packages. But, the FBR has again started another excise on the restructuring of sanctioned strength at the reformed units which is not understandable, sources added.
During a recent presentation on Human Resource (HR) Gap analysis by the FBR Admin Wing to the tax authorities, the FBR chairman observed that there is a need for rationalisation of sanctioned strength/structure of all reform units with reference to the functionality, workload, revenue, tasks versus resources etc.
Sources said that the FBR Member Human Resource Management (HRM) has been working on the issue for sometime. However, there is a need of functional understanding of old and new units in the changed environment.
The FBR has appointed three teams to undertake the task on urgent basis. Masood Ali Jamshed, Director General, RTO, Faisalabad would be the team leader for all income tax reformed setups; Munir Qureshi, Chief Collector of Customs (South) Karachi, team leader of all customs setup and Abrar Ahmad Khan, Chief (Sales Tax), FBR, team leader of all sales tax setups in the field formations. The FBR Member (HRM) will be the focal person for providing input about the past proposals to facilitate speedy evaluation.
The terms of reference of the rationalisation plan included criteria for allocation of posts at the reformed units. In this connection, the team would workout the revenue budget for each reform unit; number of taxpayers; work load per person in the unit and number of taxpayers visits to these units. Sources said that the teams would also identify redundant posts with timeline of deactivation (December 2008, 2009, 2010 or immediately).
The reduction in the number of posts as a result of automation in the reformed units would also be examined. Sources said that the new concepts of audit, enforcement, survey and anti-smuggling etc would be worked out by dedicated teams, sources said.
Under the terms of reference, the future tasks and responsive organisations and gradual increase in economic activities and taxpayers. The gradual increase in documentation of economy' ability of employees to work harder/smartly in reformed environment and improvement in efficiency and discipline would be assessed at the reformed units.
The teams would also examine the shift from self-contained units to partially outsourced units in terms of training, survey, audit, enforcement, admin etc. Other teams would also examine other issues like better educated/trained workforce; devolution to speed up decision-making; electronic supervisory systems to ensure efficiency and transparency; launching of VSS (Voluntary Severance Scheme) for surplus or redundant employees; greater focus on facilitation, monitoring, enforcement and the future needs at the reformed units.
Other terms of reference included incorporation of modern HR/organisational trends/best practices; experience of reformed organisations/units (own, others in Pakistan or abroad) and new training needs at the reformed units.