Islamabad, August 2, 2024 – Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Malik Amjed Zubair Tiwana administered the oath to the newly elected office bearers of the Management Board of IRS Officers Association (IRSOA) on Friday.
The newly elected board comprises Waseem Hayat Bajwa as President; Naib Ali Pathan, Senior Vice President; Ms. Nafeesa Satti, Executive Vice President; Ali Saleh Hayat Kalyar, Secretary General; Ghulam Mustafa Dogar, Joint Secretary; Sohail Anjum, Press Secretary; Ms. Riffat Aziz, Treasurer; and Muhammad Zarar Irshad, Coordinator.
Following the oath-taking ceremony, President IRSOA Waseem Hayat Bajwa addressed the challenges faced by IRS officers and proposed solutions to enhance the department’s efficiency and capacity. He emphasized the pressing issue of inadequate human resources in comparison to the population and number of taxpayers. He pointed out that countries like the UK, US, Canada, and Japan have a tax workforce four times larger than that of FBR, despite having populations less than half of Pakistan’s.
To address this disparity, Bajwa proposed filling 3,200 vacancies in BS (1 to 15), recruiting 1,500 to 2,000 new inspectors, and creating 100 to 125 new positions in BS 20 & 21. He also highlighted the limited outreach of FBR, which has fewer than 100 offices across the country compared to Japan’s 525 offices, including 100 in Tokyo alone. Bajwa suggested establishing 145 District Tax Offices nationwide, complete with the necessary infrastructure, human resources, and logistics.
Bajwa also touched on the issue of slow career progression, particularly in BS 19 to 21. He recommended upgrading six CCIRs from BS 20 to 21, establishing four new directorates for Anti-Money Laundering, creating 50 to 60 BS-20 positions in district tax offices, six BS-20 positions for CIR (Appeals), and 75 BS-21 positions for 100 benches of the IRS Tribunal.
Furthermore, Bajwa highlighted that FBR employees are the lowest paid among all service groups, receiving only a frozen performance allowance of 20% of their basic pay, whereas other federal and provincial service groups receive 150% additional pay. He argued that FBR employees, who are responsible for collecting trillions of rupees in taxes, should be compensated on par with officers of other groups.
Bajwa also pointed out that only 0.43% of revenue is spent on FBR, the lowest in the world. He suggested that international best practices dictate that tax authorities should receive 1.5% to 2.5% of revenue. He noted that the Punjab Revenue Authority receives 2% of its revenue targets. Bajwa proposed financial autonomy for FBR with a single-line budget of up to 1.5% of revenue targets, providing the fiscal space needed to improve working conditions and streamline operations.
Member PR, Mr. Bakhtiar Muhammad, expressed best wishes for IRSOA’s efforts to promote the welfare of IRS officers and pledged support for enhancing service conditions in coordination with IRSOA.
