August 01, 2008	Friday	Rajab 28, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 31: The government has terminated the contracts of the three corporate members of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) appointed from the private sector, and replaced them with officers from the regular cadre.

The members along with two others were appointed by former finance minister Shaukat Aziz as part of a commitment with the World Bank for release of $102 million loan for restructuring of the tax machinery.

They were appointed on market-based salaries with a mandate to help members from the regular services in working out the tax reforms strategy, but later on they also adopted the typical working style prevailing in government offices.

The members, who were finally shown the door by the PPP-led government, are Habib Fakhruddin (Member Tax Policy and Reforms), Dr Ather Maqsood Ahmed (Member Fiscal Research and Statistics) and Abdur Razaq (Member Audit).

These members were also working in the tax department for the last few months while having no official extension in their contracts, though former Federal Board of Revenue chairman M. Abdullah Yousuf was repeatedly pushing for their further extensions.

Two other members drawn from the private sector – Member IMS Amer Zaffar Chaudhry and Member HRM Mohammad Talha – had relinquished the charge few months ago after failing to get further extensions. These members were appointed in February 2002 in MP-2 scale and were upgraded in MP-1 along with extension in service 2006 with exception of Mr Talha and Mr Razaq.

Previously, Perwaiz Amjad remained a member audit along with Zafar Aziz Osmani as member HRM who were appointed in February 2002. They were later replaced by Abdul Razaq and Mohammad Talha, respectively.

According to the notifications, Ihsanul Haq was appointed as Member Fiscal Research and Statistics, Usman Khalid Mirza as Member Audit, Afzal Naubahar Kayani as Member Tax Policy and Reforms, Mumtaz Haider Rizvi as Member IMS, Mohammad Anees as Member HRM.

Besides, the government also appointed Irfan Nadeem Syed as Member Direct Taxes, Mohammad Afzal Bhatti as Coordinator Special Initiatives, Zafar Iqbal as Director General Directorate General Customs Valuations, Karachi, and extended contract of Mumtaz Ahmad as Member Legal.

Though the government finally got rid of the private-sector members but a range of consultants were still deriving higher salaries from the tax department without making any worthwhile contribution towards the tax reform process.

This shows that the maximum portion of the reform process was allocated for the non-development side, the cost of which would be re-paid to the donors by the taxpayers of the country.