In a bid to achieve the new revenue collection target of Rs 5.55 trillion in the upcoming budget the Federal Board of Revenue Union has appealed the Prime Minister and the FBR new chairman to pass directives, allowing the union president and other staff to take the charge of the office, as they have already been reinstated by the courts.
Union president Mian Abdul Qayyum observed that the Federal Board of Revenue collection during the first 11 months of the fiscal year posted a historic shortfall of nearly Rs 447 billion, leading to higher than expected budget deficit gap, which can be bridged only with the support of committed workers.
He said that the FBR Union was not only working for the cause of lower staff of the tax department but also endeavoring for the enhancement in tax collection by digging out corruption of billions of rupees.
It is to be noted that Lahore High Court as well as the Federal Service Tribunal orders have reinstated the FBR Union Central President who was dismissed from service along with several other union office-bearers around four years ago for union activities and raising voice against corruption.
The union leader said that the unexpected decline in revenue collections presents the new finance team of the government with its starkest challenge. All heads - customs, income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty (FED) - missed the revenue collection target which can be achieved only with ambitious and efficient workers who are being denied to work.
He said that more than 19 low cadre officials had been dismissed while five employees of low rank were suspended from services without any serious allegation in Feb 2015. Their crime was that they were union office-bearers.
The central president of the former union, which is not presently operational in the FBR, said that he always raised the voice against tax evasion of several big companies, including so-called non-resident companies, which were evading tax of billions of rupees for a long time. The crime of the union was just attempting to make the FBR a transparent tax collecting agency.
Mian Qayyum vowed to continue struggle for the cause of workers and field staff, who actually make revenue target possible by their efforts, besides pointing out the revenue leakage.
He said that Federal Board of Revenue can alone generate the amount equal to the federal budget. Resultantly, there will be no need to approach World Bank or IMF for monetary assistance.
He said that the FBR already contributes around 70 per cent in total budget of Pakistan despite non-recovery of billions of rupees income tax, sales tax and custom duty due to influential politicians and bureaucracy. Moreover, the tax department can generate revenue equal to the total volume of federal budget through imposition of wealth tax and implementation of agri tax, which were debated much but never implemented. The union always recommended the management to control embezzlement of around Rs300 billion annually by the so called non-resident companies.