October 04, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 21, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has converted three medium taxpayers units (MTUs) into regional tax offices (RTOs) under the World Bank funded reforms of tax administration.

The MTUs of Lahore, Gujranwala and Sialkot were converted into RTOs which would collect income tax and general sales tax under one roof from the taxpayers. These RTOs were rolled out after a lapse of three months.

The FBR held an assurance to the World Bank to convert all the MTUs into RTOs by end of June 30, 2007. The board had so far established five RTOs at Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Abbotabad, Karachi and Quetta. The total number of RTOs is 12.

This means that the board will have to roll out the remaining four RTOs. The FBR has also agreed with the World Bank to complete the reforms agenda by the year 2009.

The World Bank provided $102 million assistance, $23 million grant by DFID, while remaining funds were to be borne by Pakistan for the implementation of the Tax Administration Reforms Project (TARP).

An official in the FBR confirmed that not only the deadline was missed by the reform team but these RTOs were established in a hurry which rather facilitating the taxpayers created problems as there was no proper infrastructure and automation was in place.