ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has abolished/merged three positions of the FBR Members and brought down the total strength of FBR Members from 13 to 10.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that the FBR has implemented the first phase of reform plan and decided to reduce the total numbers of members from 13 to 10 under the first phase of reforms.

The notifications are expected to be issued for implementation of the Board-in-Council decision.

The FBR abolished/merged three posts of members including Human Resource Management (HRM) with Administration, Member Accounting with Audit and Member Strategic Planning Reforms & Statistics (SPR&S) with Reforms.

Under Dr Ishrat Hussain-led Institutional Reforms Committee had recommended for slashing down total strength of members from 13 to 8 in phases.

Therefore, the FBR has implemented the first phase, and decided to bring down the numbers from 13 to 10.

The FBR’s Board in Council granted approval for abolishing/merging three posts of Members in first phase, and it was not yet known when the second phase would be implemented.

The second phase might get implemented within the current fiscal year.

Sources said that the post of Member Information Technology (IT) might also be abolished in the next phase as the FBR had hired chief information officer (CIO) but it was still premature to make any prediction at this stage.

There are 10 existing members including FBR’s Member Inland Revenue (IR) Operation, Member (IR) Policy, Member Facilitation and Taxpayer Education (FATE), Member Customs (Operation), Member Customs (Policy), Member Taxpayer Audit, Member Admin, Member Legal, Member IT and Member Legal and Accounting. Presently, there are 21 director generals (DGs) within the FBR’s machinery as 11 DGs belong to Customs group, while 10 DGs are working in Inland Revenue (IR) service group.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021