Waqar Masood named revenue aide

Main challenges are to become bridge between FBR and Q Block, enhance revenues

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday appointed Dr Waqar Masood Khan as his Special Assistant on Revenue as the premier sought to focus more on the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Khan, a four-time finance secretary and an insider of the finance ministry, will enjoy the status of minister of state, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division.

Also, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government decided to keep Javed Ghani as FBR chairman for three more months after it could not find a suitable candidate to appoint on a permanent basis. PM Imran got approval of the federal cabinet through circulation to keep Ghani in place.

The PM’s decision to run FBR on an ad hoc basis would not serve the national cause, said the sources.

It was the desire of PM Imran to appoint a special assistant and Dr Waqar Masood Khan was both “politically savvy and an experienced hand”, a government official told The Express Tribune.

However, it will be a challenging task for the new aide to boost FBR revenues as his appointment has suddenly raised the stakes.

But the FBR will be run under the Rules of Business 1973, which means all decisions will be taken by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, according to people privy to the development.

About six months ago, the prime minister wanted to appoint Haroon Akhtar Khan as his special assistant on revenue but Shaikh did not agree at that time. Haroon Akhtar wanted to directly report to the PM, which was not acceptable to Shaikh. Without the portfolio of revenue, the finance aide is considered handicapped.

Dr Waqar Masood Khan has also the expertise to deal with international financial institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Khan’s presence in the FBR headquarters could strengthen hands of Shaikh, provided both of them develop a workable mechanism.

Khan’s advantage will be that he will not be occupying a regular FBR post, which can pitch taxmen against him. His main challenge will be to become a bridge between the FBR headquarters and the Q Block and prove his presence there by significantly enhancing revenues.

The government was joyous about recent achievement of the revenue target by the FBR. Against the first quarter target of Rs970 billion, the FBR provisionally collected slightly over Rs1 trillion in taxes. But two critical factors have been ignored. First, the July-September collection was higher by mere Rs44 billion or 4.1% and was not sufficient to achieve the annual tax collection target of Rs4.963 trillion, which needs growth of over 22%.

The 4% revenue growth is also less than half the inflation rate, which means the FBR has not been able to fully capture the impact of increase in prices and there are revenue leakages in field formations.

Secondly, the FBR has been missing its monthly targets for two consecutive months and achievement of the quarterly target is merely the result of exceptional collection in July.

Political interference

The FBR on Monday warned taxmen of refraining from using political connections to get lucrative postings amid interference of various stakeholders in its day-to-day affairs. The revenue board intimated all its field formations that “exertion of political pressure” may lead to disciplinary action against such employees.

It is rare that any public organisation issues such instructions. PM Imran had vowed to make the FBR free from political interference.

“I have noticed with serious concern that certain officers in total disregard to Rule 19 and 29 of the Government Servants Conduct Rules 1964 are exerting political (and) external pressures and interferences in connection with their postings and transfers,” said an official correspondence.

FBR’s Member Administration Mohammad Bakhtiar has sent the instructions to all chief commissioners of Inland Revenue Service, all chief collector customs and director generals.

No government servant shall, directly or indirectly, approach member of the National Assembly or a provincial assembly or any other non-official person to intervene on his behalf in any matter, reads Rule 19 of Government Servants Conduct Rules 1964.

Last month, a brother of a federal minister, who had been elected from Karachi on the PTI ticket, approached the FBR for posting of his favourite person at a lucrative position at a port, an FBR official told The Express Tribune.

The FBR has warned that using external and political pressure is “misconduct” and can invite disciplinary proceedings. The official correspondence showed that all these officers who exercised external connections had been marked and necessary observations had been placed in their personal dossiers.

The observations will be the main consideration at the time of making their career decisions including promotion and disciplinary proceedings besides placement and rotation, according to the FBR.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2020.

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