January 30, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 26,1423

ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: Adviser to prime minister, Shaukat Aziz has asked the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to conduct a survey through independent institutions to get taxpayers perception about changes made in the tax administration.

The minister made the recommendation besides others during the meeting on CBR’s tax reforms held here on Wednesday, said an official source.

Mr Aziz said that the survey should be carried out in collaboration with institutions like LUMS and IBA to have a feed back from the taxpayers on the innovative experiments of the establishment of Large Taxpayers Unit at Karachi and Medium Taxpayers Unit in Lahore.

The adviser recommended that in the light of report prepared by the institutions more units would be established.

The tax authorities are planning to establish one more LTU at Lahore and three to four MTUs in major cities of the country, said the official.

The adviser stressed for establishment of communication strategy to create a sense of ownership among the officials for accepting the changes in the tax administration.

According to an official announcement, earlier, a four-member IMF-World Bank mission headed by Richard Highfield gave a detailed presentation to the advisors on finance and privatization at the end of IMF mission’s two-week visit to Pakistan. It was also attended by other senior officials.

The mission would evaluate the detailed implementation plan being prepared by the CBR with the assistance of their consultants in order to make the CBR a modern, progressive, effective organization for optimising revenue by providing quality service and promoting voluntary compliance with tax laws.

During the visit, the mission also visited the LTU at Karachi and Model income tax office at Lahore where they held discussions with the stakeholders including taxpayers as well as tax practitioners, added the announcement.