ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: A 14-member World Bank Mission would start on Tuesday an extensive review of the key areas of Pakistan Tax Administration Reform Project (TARP) to identify weaknesses and gaps in the reform process of the taxation system.

A senior official told Dawn on Monday that the World Bank team to be led by Senior Financial Sector Specialist Mudassir Khan would hold meetings with senior tax officials in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi to review the progress of the existing reform initiatives and those to be started in near future.

The team during it 10-day stay in Pakistan would review progress with implementation of anti-corruption strategy and the measures taken by the CBR to streamline the human resource base through training, adoption of professional code of conduct and ethics as well as implementation of revised and planned incentive structure.

The team would assess effectiveness towards implementation of reforms with addition to functional, administrative and financial autonomy granted to the CBR and would include organizational structure and accountability.

The review includes key areas covering reforms in administration of income tax, sales tax and central excise. The WB team would assess changes implemented towards taxpayers’ identification, registration and audit and their impact on broadening of tax base and revenues.

The mission, the official said would develop terms of reference for assessment of CARE — customs pilot project — for the purposes of replication to other sites. They would also visit customs sites at Karachi, Lahore and Sust for extension of ‘benchmark’ study earlier carried out at KICT for establishing a national baseline.

The team would also assess IT plans catering to ongoing reforms in all taxes and future initiatives for consistency of technology and integration. It would also review progress with conversion, transfer of existing data records, process re-engineering and implementation of new technology initiatives.