UPHEAVAL at country’s top tax authority continues with the departure of yet another Chairperson. Nausheen Javed Amjad was removed as Chairperson Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Saturday with Muhammad Javed Ghani appointed in her place as stopgap arrangement for three months.
Major FBR change at top occurred at a time when tax collection machinery claimed to surpass its revenue collection by Rs 82 billion that touched to Rs 3, 898 billion till June 30, 2020 against the revised target of Rs 3,908 for the last fiscal year. It was considered as an achievement of the outgoing FBR Chairperson but then what led to her change is not immediately known. In a matter of two years, it is the fourth time that FBR has seen a change in leadership. These frequent changes and then appointing a new Chairman on ad hoc basis will not help government in any manner in order to bring much needed reforms in the FBR and achieve the ambitious tax collection target set for current fiscal year. Former FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi had done some tremendous work but since his departure, process of reforms virtually stands choked.
Reforms in any institution are painstakingly a time consuming process and it can only be taken forward in an environment free of uncertainty and confusion. We therefore suggest government to appoint a permanent FBR Chairman entrusted with all required powers to execute reforms in the organisation, focus of which should be bringing more potential people and sectors into tax net rather than burdening those already honesty paying their taxes. The strategy of raising revenues through multiple high taxes and numerous withholding provisions has miserably failed. Apart from reviewing this approach, there is also need to simplifying tax payment procedures for convenience of taxpayers.
