Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: FBR Chairman Mohammad Irshad has inaugurated a newly-furbished and modernized Contact Center at FBR House to promptly respond to taxpayers’ queries and provide them relevant information in real time.

Member Facilitation and Taxpayer Education (FATE) FBR Dr. Fazal Muhammad Abrejo, Chief FATE Ms Tehmina Aamer and other senior officers of FATE Wing were also present.

Briefing the chairman about the FBR Contact Center, Member FATE Dr. Fazal Muhammad Abrejo said the facility was based on the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Software being used by top companies in the world to improve customer’s contact experience. In January 2017, the Federal Board of Revenue implemented the latest CRM that tracks, monitors, and archives issues reported by the taxpayers. Customer can now lodge complaints by sending emails to helpline@fbr.gov.pk, calling the helpline UAN, and also by visiting the FBR’s website www.fbr.gov.pk. CRM also helps in analyzing the kind of issues that are frequently reported and time taken to resolve an issue.

Through the development of Iris Software Utility, frequently reported issues can now be resolved over the phone when a taxpayers calls on helpline. The Iris Utility is linked with NADRA (National Data Base and Registration Authority) database and automatically fetches all data to be updated in the Iris system. Relevant information that can be updated in the system using this facility includes date of birth, special person credit, senior citizen credit, name correction, CPR (Computerized Payment Receipt) issues and Income Tax return information.

The Chairman was further told that the FATE Wing had conducted a number of trainings of Contact Center employees for capacity building and three different manuals were written on Professionalism and Courtesy, Income Tax Return Filing and related issues as well as on Sales Tax and FED Return and related issues. The first training was imparted in “Professionalism and Courtesy” to acquaint the agents in basic etiquette while talking to clients so that all agents use standard greetings, place clients on hold properly and use a standard closing. Based upon this training, one call of each agent is monitored by the respective supervisor and a score is given. The second training introduced basic tax laws related to return filing and wealth statement. Agents were given a walk-through in Iris and explained different provisions of law. The third training introduced basic Sales Tax and FED return filing and related issues. Agents were given a walk-through in Sales Tax Portal and information that needed to entered in different Annexes.

Dr. Fazal Muhammad Abrejo further told the Chairman that due to strict monitoring by FATE Wing, induction of new agents in the contact center and development of software utility for resolution of complaints, the number of dropped calls had gone down from 50% in Oct 2016 to less than 2% in April 2017. The average hold time-the time a person remains on the line before an agents answers the call on helpline UAN-had also gone down from 30 minutes in Oct 2016 to less than 30 second in April 2017.

The Chairman was informed that previously there was no CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software in place at FBR through which a taxpayer could lodge a complaint either by calling or visiting the website. Consequently, it was also not possible to monitor the kind of issues that are frequently reported and time taken to resolve an issue. The installed CRM has the capacity to track, monitor, and archive issues reported by the taxpayers. During Jan-April 8854 cases have been resolved. An email backlog of 1500 cases that was pending for months was also taken care of.