Over 150 sales tax auditors and senior auditors on Wednesday demanded of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) administration to re-enact the notification for establishing sales tax group to designate positions in the new occupational group 'Inland Revenue Service' (IRS).
The auditors staged protest by wearing black bands to express their resentment against the decision at Regional Tax Office (RTO), Sales Tax Audit and Enforcement Collectorates.
Talking to Business Recorder, they said the sales tax group had been notified by the PPP government in 1996, which was later abrogated by the interim government. They requested the incumbent government to pay heed to this burning issue to protect the most vulnerable community in the board.
They said the issue of promotion of sales tax auditors and senior auditors could easily be resolved, if the board promotes them as per their seniority and added that the auditor having five years, 10 years and more experience should be designated as senior auditor, assistant collector and deputy collector, respectively.
They said the board has so far promoted only seven senior auditors as assistant collectors (ACs), of these, only two are permanent while the rest have current charge. They said that over 900 auditors and senior auditors are waiting for promotion for last 14 years.
Despite welcoming the newly proposed setup of IRS warmly, the administration has completely ignored the most revenue generating segment of the FBR. They alleged the concerned authority has deprived them of their due right of promotion, intentionally.
They said that some 218 seats have been allocated for the Federal Excise whereas no seat has been allocated for Sales Tax in the proposed structure, raising question why 218 seats have been allocated to Federal Excise as these positions belongs to Sales Tax.
They demanded that all the Federal Excise seats should be allocated to Sales Tax group as federal excise duty is being collected in VAT mode since the promulgation of Federal Excise Act, 2005. They also warned to kick off countrywide pen-down strike, if the FBR did not accept their demands.