Daily Times

In a bid to achieve the new revenue collection target of Rs 5.55 trillion in the upcoming budget, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Union has urged Prime Minister Imran Khan and the FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi 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 could 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 endeavouring for the enhancement in tax collection by digging out corruption of billions of rupees.

“It is to be noted that the Lahore High Court as well as the Federal Service Tribunal 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,” read a statement issued on Tuesday.

The union leader said that the unexpected decline in revenue collections presented 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 could be achieved only with ambitious and efficient workers who were being denied to work, he said

He said that more than 19 low cadre officials had been dismissed, while five employees of lower rank were suspended from services without any serious allegation in February 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, he said.

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 the FBR could alone generate the amount equal to the federal budget. Resultantly, there would be no need to approach the World Bank or the IMF for monetary assistance, he claimed.

He said the FBR already contributes around 70 percent to the total budget of Pakistan despite non-recovery of billions of rupees under the heads of income tax, sales tax and customs 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.” He said the union always recommended the management to control embezzlement of around Rs 300 billion annually by the so-called non-resident companies.