The Federal Cabinet has approved the appointment of Nausheen Javaid Amjad as the new Chairperson Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday.
According to media reports, Syed Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi will no longer serve as the Chairman FBR.
Shabbar Zaidi who was serving as the chairman FBR was on leave for an indefinite time period since last 3 months. Nausheen Javaid a Grade-22 officer was handling all the affairs of FBR in his absence.
Read more: Government gearing up to approve sweeping reforms in FBR
According to latest media reports, Shabbar Zaidi will no longer be FBR chairman. It was learned that Shabbar Zaidi has conveyed to the secretary Ministry of Finance that he will not be able to resume duty as FBR chairman due to health issues. Zaidi, however, has not confirmed rendering his resignation to the government.
Pakistan Generating Less than Half of its Tax Potential: World Bank
The World Bank released a report last year in May saying that Pakistan is meeting less than half of its tax potential.
The report, titled Pakistan Revenue Mobilization Project, presented a rather startlingly picture, stating that there is “substantial potential to increase tax receipts without imposing new taxes or raising tax rates”. It notes that rectifying the process of tax compliance can increase the revenue generation capabilities of Pakistan from 13% to 26% of the GDP.
The report went onto to deduce that the greatest taxation rift is observed in the services industry as opposed to the manufacturing sector, while the sales tax has a great parity as compared to income taxes.
The World Bank report highlighted that lack of moral and legal inadequacies are prime causes that have led to a lack of efficient tax compliance. The report highlighted these legal inadequacies such as prize bonds, Benami transactions and the tradition of not undertaking legal action to ensure compliance. It also highlights that the taxation authorities are unable to access foreign remittances and the fact that lack of substantial taxes on immovable property endorses black money investments in the real estate market.
Nausheen Javed is among top brass of Inland Revenue Services
Nuausheen Amjad Javed is a senior bureaucrat in Inland Revenue Service. Nausheen is the second woman who will lead the prestigious organisation of 25,000 people. She is the fourth chairperson of FBR in the past 20 months, which indicates a lack of consistencies in taxation policies and strategies, as every new chairperson tried to run government organisation in his and her own way.
Nosheen Javed Amjad appointed as Chairperson FBR. pic.twitter.com/20gkNBTRYr
— Mansoor Ali Khan (@_Mansoor_Ali) April 6, 2020
As far as the challenges for the new chairman FBR are concerned, Nausheen has a formidable job of increasing revenue generation and bringing restructuring policy within the organisation.
Likewise, the new FBR chairperson has to address the issue of rampant corruption, particularly fresh reports of taking kickbacks by some officers in return of adding the names of taxpayers in the list of those who will receive tax refunds on a priority basis under PM’s COVID-19 relief package.