Cabinet appoints new FBR chairman

ISLAMABAD:

The federal cabinet on Wednesday appointed the prime minister's confidant Rashid Mahmood Langrial as chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), bringing an officer from the all-powerful Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) after five years to fix the tax system.

Langrial has been serving as secretary power since March this year and has been appointed with immediate effect in place of Malik Amjad Zubair Tiwana. Tiwana had taken premature retirement with effect from August 15 against the attitude of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

In order to implement his tax agenda, the PM has preferred Langrial over the officers from two regular tax services – Pakistan Customs and the Inland Revenue Service (IRS). It is for the second time in the past five years that the government has brought an officer from PAS, although in the past such experiences failed to yield the desired results. Langrial is transferred and posted as chairman of the FBR with immediate effect and until further orders, according to a notification issued by the Establishment Division after the cabinet's approval.

The government secured the cabinet's approval by circulating a summary – a day after the PM approved a single-name proposal for the new chairman.

Unlike in the past, when the IRS and the Customs groups were against the outsiders serving as chairman, this time there is a deep division and mistrust between these two service groups. The seeds of mistrust were sowed during a failed attempt by former finance minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar to restructure the FBR.

IRS officers are happy that the Customs Group officer has not been appointed the chairman while the Customs Group also sees an opportunity in Langrial to implement its unfinished agenda of separation from the FBR and the IRS and becoming an independent board. This provides a window to the new chairman to make his place in a divided house.

Langrial has not served in any tax department during his 29 years of service but his brother has remained as member operations and his wife also belongs to the Customs Group.

The federal cabinet approved the repatriation of Malik Amjad Zubair Tiwana to the FBR with immediate effect from where he would retire next week. Tiwana was one of the best IRS officers, having experience in both policy and operations and enjoyed a good and clean reputation.

Belonging from Mandi Bahauddin, Langrial had been promoted to grade-21 in January 2019 and is expected to get the highest pay scale in the next board meeting. He is a graduate from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University where he did Masters of Public Administration in International Development.

Langrial has also remained chief secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan and chief executive officer of the National Power Parks Management Company Limited (NPPMCL). He has served as the secretary agriculture and commissioner Lahore Division. Langrial has also authored a book "Story of the Fair Sex: Socioeconomic Conditions of Women".

The outgoing FBR chairman performed fairly well and managed to achieve a 30% increase in tax collection in the last fiscal year despite a slowing economy. His biggest challenge was keeping the PM satisfied, who since Tiwana's appointment in July last year was not happy with him.

In July last year, Shehbaz Sharif wanted to appoint Langrial as chairman of the FBR but the then finance minister Ishaq Dar did not agree. It took Shehbaz Sharif one year and numerous meetings to force Tiwana to seek premature retirement for having an 'honourable exit'.

Langrial is a confidant of Shehbaz Sharif and his appointment as the FBR chairman might save the revenue board from the wrath of the PM. However, the government has not yet notified Langrial as the Secretary Revenue Division, as usually both these positions are held by one person.

Langrial's immediate challenge will be building a good team to achieve this fiscal year's gigantic tax target of Rs13 trillion and implement the PM's initiatives. There is a possibility that the new chairman will replace the top-tier of the FBR administration.

His second challenge will be to work with McKenzie – a consultancy firm hired for digitalisation of the FBR system. PM Sharif was not happy with slow progress on the McKenzie project and delay in full implementation of the track and trace system.