ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: A high level pre-appraisal World Bank mission is due to arrive here on Sunday to review the restructuring of the tax administration.

Senior officials in the CBR told Dawn on Saturday, the mission during their 20 days stay in Pakistan would review the project scope, objectives, strategy and time table.

The mission to be led by the Bank country representative, Muddasar Khan would include members-Arturo Jacobs, Sampat Saraf Ahmad, Hasan Masood Mirza, Michael Engelschalk, William Mayville, Asya Akhlaque, Zia Alijalaly and Hasan Saqib. The mission would hold meetings with all members of the CBR to finalize the re- structuring plan.

According to the officials, the bank would try to reach an agreement with the CBR for financing the re-structuring process.

The tax authorities have estimated initially an amount of around $130 million for the implementation of re-structuring plan of tax administration over a period of five years.

The main areas to be discussed during the meeting, the officials said, would include organizational structure and autonomy for the CBR; human resource re-structuring; continuity and sustainability of reform and performance.

Among other main issues, the officials said the mission would discuss at length the issue of autonomy to be granted to CBR in execution of its policies.

Government had already presented draft Pakistan Revenue Authority (PRA) Act in the parliament in the year 1998, which was yet to be considered for enactment.

The mission would also discuss with the tax authorities the continuity and stability of the reform process to facilitate the taxpayers.

Explaining the strategy report, officials said it contained the design of the administration of reform, which the CBR intends to carry out in the next seven years.

The short-term strategy covering a period of up to 15 months, medium term from 16 to 60 months and long term from 61 to 84 months has been worked out.

Elaborating further, officials said the major component of the funding would be spent on automation of the manual process, creation of data bank transaction and to prepare an information system plan, which would provide a quality service to the taxpayer, reduce interaction between the taxpayer and tax collectors, improve voluntary compliance and address the problem of tax evasion.