Nausheen named new FBR chairperson

Cabinet prematurely terminates two-year contract of Chairman Shabbar Zaidi

ISLAMABAD: After a gnawing gap of two months, the federal cabinet on Monday approved the appointment of Nausheen Javaid Amjad as the new chairperson of the Federal Board of Revenue and prematurely terminated the two-year contract of Chairman Shabbar Zaidi due to his health concerns.

Nausheen is the second woman to lead the organisation of 25,000 people and the fourth chairperson in the last 20 months. This indicates lack of consistencies in taxation polices and strategies, as every new chairperson tries to run the FBR in his or her own way.

The government approved the appointment of the new FBR chairperson by having the federal cabinet circulate a summary instead of bringing the matter in a regular cabinet meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday (today).

Nausheen faces a gigantic task of stopping the nosediving tax revenues, restructuring the top FBR hierarchy within days and improving the tainted image of the tax machinery.

She will also have to address the issue of rampant corruption, particularly fresh reports regarding some officers receiving kickbacks from taxpayers for putting their names on the list of those who will receive tax refunds on a priority basis under the PM’s COVID-19 relief package.

In April last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had handpicked Zaidi as his man to achieve the goal of collecting Rs5.5 trillion in taxes during this fiscal year and Rs8 trillion by the end of his term.

Zaidi was good in policymaking but he could not handle the FBR’s operations well. Former chairman also could not appoint competent members at the top. He transferred thousands of people of low ranks without replacing the top hierarchy.

Last Friday, Premier Imran, in his capacity as minister in-charge of the Establishment Division, had authorised to circulate the summary for the appointment of Nausheen as the chairperson and termination of Zaidi’s contract.

The selection committee for appointing senior officers had unanimously recommended that

Nausheen be appointed as the FBR chairperson. Before this, the Grade 22 officer – the highest attainable rank and pay scale for a civil servant in the country – was serving as member administration of the FBR.

She has one year of service remaining and will retire in April next year. Zaidi had stopped attending office in January this year, except for one week in February when he came back to Islamabad but mostly stayed at home.

Zaidi had said that because of his health concerns he was unable to attend the office.

Since February, various lobbies have been forwarding the names of their candidates for the post of the FBR chairperson and a new revenue minister.

Backed by the military establishment, the name of Haroon Akhtar Khan also surfaced for the post of special assistant to the prime minister on revenue. However, the sources said that Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh threatened to resign, if the premier further bifurcated his ministry.

Initially, Shaikh had been appointed as the minister in-charge of finance, revenue and economic affairs. But later on, the premier appointed Hammad Azhar as the federal minister for economic affairs.

Nausheen has been appointed in very challenging times as she will have to restructure the FBR in addition to minimising the revenue shortfall.

From July through March of the current fiscal year, the FBR provisionally collected Rs3.063 trillion. Cumulatively, the shortfall in the nine-month tax collection target jumped to Rs693 billion against the original target and Rs459 billion as compared to the revised target.

In March alone, it was supposed to collect Rs595 billion but it provisionally received around Rs332 billion. The shortfall in tax collection was far higher than the impact of coronavirus contagion estimated by independent economists and the FBR. The economic activities started getting affected in the last 10 days of March but the FBR’s collection remained dismal throughout the month.

Ashfaq Tola, a leading tax consultant, had said at Express News economic affairs show -The Review -that delay in appointing a new chairperson is causing a loss of Rs2 billion in revenues per day.

The sources said that Nausheen plans to bring a new team comprising members of Inland Revenue Operations and Customs Operations, subject to the endorsement of the finance ministry.