ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: The Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, in his address to the Annual Collectors’ Conference here on Saturday, asked the Central Board of Revenue officials to focus on raising revenues while ensuring better service to taxpayers and improving their image.

He assured full support to their recommendations in this regard.

The Minister congratulated the CBR over its restructuring, observing that the situation was much better now because there had been no serious complaint against the CBR officials posted at the airports.

Invited by him to ask questions, a senior official complained that the Collectors were neglected in the award of compensation under the assumption that they had other sources of income apart from their salaries.

Aziz said that double salaries are being paid to the staff of the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) which had been established at Karachi as a pilot project. Double salary could not, however, be paid for all the staff across the board. He promised that the staff of all future pilot projects would be paid double salary.

It was observed that the customs intelligence could function properly only if all the agencies, federal as well as provincial, coordinated. “There will be coordination, if we coordinate,” the minister remarked.

An inter-ministerial meeting was held in this regard last year but there was no follow-up. He could convene another such meeting, he said but insisted that there should be concrete proposals in this regard.

His attention was drawn to the problem of under-invoicing of imports and over-invoicing of exports as well as mis-declaration. These malpractice could be curbed only with the cooperation of the Commercial Attaches, who, however, did not even reply to queries. It was, therefore, suggested that Customs Attaches be posted in selected embassies.

Minister Aziz, seconded the observation, noting that the problem was particularly very severe in regard to China and Dubai. He, however, felt that permanent deployment of Customs officials in our embassies was not a practical solution.

He would, however, give serious consideration to a practical proposal under which one official each from the customs intelligence and collectorate might be sent abroad whenever a mega case was detected.

In his concluding remarks, the Finance Minister underlined the need of changing the culture in which service to taxpayers would be one of the prime considerations.

In this regard, he advised the CBR officials to function in such a manner that the flow of consignments was not hampered unduly. It was not necessary to open every consignment. They should ensure against any attempt to evade tax through vigilance.

He also urged the necessity of disposing of cases expeditiously and avoid making people come to them repeatedly. It was also their objective to see that the process of production did not stop because of their operations, he added.

The conference, organized by the Revenue Division, is being attended by senior officials of Customs, Sales Tax and Central Excise Departments.

During two days of deliberations, it will review the performance of 2002-03 and identify shortcomings therein, if any. It will also identify the goals and targets for the current financial year and prepare an implementation plan.

Another objective of the Conference is to advise the CBR on the steps necessary for improving revenue collection.

In his address of welcome earlier, Mr Muhammad Ramzan, Member (Customs) observed that 80pc of tax collection had been assigned to his department. He drew the minister’s attention to lack of facilities for the CBR employees including residential, logistics and equipment.

Mr Ramzan proposed: A Customs Foundation be established on the analogy of Police Foundation; Capital Development Authority and provincial authorities be directed to allocate land for residential colonies; CBR may be given a proper annual share in foreign scholarships to further enhance their skills; annual government grant may be allocated for promoting sports activities and purchase of new astroturf for Customs Hockey ground at Karachi; and CBR may be assigned a proper quota of positions in the Ministries.