FBR employees end strike on finance minister’s assurance

Miftah says efforts on to make salaries of FBR workers equal to other federal govt employees

KARACHI:

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) employees have put off their pen-down strike after Finance Minister Miftah Ismail assured them of resolving their grievances during a meeting.

Sources said that representatives of FBR Action Committee including Deputy Commissioner Inland Revenue Ali Saleh Hayat from Rawalpindi, Naeem Shah from Islamabad, IRO Nasir Abbasi from Multan, Tahir Khakwani from Peshawar, Ali Jan RTO from Bahawalpur and IRO Syed Tansir Tirmizi held talks with the Finance Minister.

The finance minister while addressing the delegates, said that he was working on recommendations to make the salaries of FBR employees equal to those of other federal agencies so that exploitations against Federal Board of Revenue employees could be rectified.

A representative of the Action Committee in the delegation said that the finance minister has ensured to meet the demands of FBR employees.

He said that former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Federal Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema, Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman and political and social figure Rana Tariq have played a key role in making the talks with the Finance Minister a success.

Federal Board of Revenue employees have expressed satisfaction and said that the Federal Board of Revenue is a responsible and dutiful professional organization who not only worked during the Covid pandemic but also meet the tax collection target during the current financial year.

It has not only met the tax collection targets but also collected more tax than the set targets and deposited the revenue in the national exchequer and is now working to collect an additional tax of Rs271 billion as per government orders.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2022.