ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday announced the revival of ‘green channel’ and asked the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to direct the customs’ airport staff to stop harassing incoming international passengers.

Addressing a large number of senior tax officials at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Mr Aziz asked the member customs to direct the customs staff at airports to stop the harassment of incoming passengers at the earliest. “I will personally check the order’s compliance at any airport randomly. This must be done away with,” the premier said.

Mr Aziz said that the customs officials’ perception should be improved. “We are also concerned about under-invoicing and misdeclaration of goods. These problems affect revenue collection and hurt the industry’s growth.”

The prime minister also announced an improved compensation package, previously given to reformed units in CBR headquarters, would now be given to other officials and those associated with directorates general of inspection and audit, training and research, intelligence and investigation, customs valuation and post clearance audit, and directorate of research and statistics. However, it was imperative that the CBR’s management should match the enhanced compensation with better performance by adopting a transparent selection policy.

Highlighting achievements and improvements on the taxation side, he said that substantial progress had been made in moving the base of taxation from trade and investment towards income and consumption.

However, he said, there still remained a number of areas that required immediate attention to deepen the reform process.

He said that despite considerable progress, the incidence of corruption needed to be reduced.

“The base of direct taxation should be extended by bringing in more people under the tax net. We also need to further consolidate and deepen the GST, particularly by tapping the full potential of the services sector,” he said.

CBR Chairman M Abdullah Yousuf briefed the prime minister about the CBR’s achievements.