ISLAMABAD, July 13: The government is planning to fire as many as 5,000 employees shortly as part of the restructuring of tax administration.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Saturday that the Human Resource Management (HRM) wing of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has prepared an extensive report on the downsizing as part of restructuring.

Elaborating, the sources said, there were around 30,000 persons working in the CBR and its field formations. Of them, 700 worked in the CBR headquarters, about 13,000 in the income tax and about 16,300 in customs, central excise and sales tax departments.

And out of a total expenditure of Rs2.6 billion on CBR, Rs1.6 billion went towards paying the salaries. The total outlay of Rs2.6 billion was only 0.58 per cent of the total collection, the sources said.

The customs department has around 5,651 Sepahis (soldiers) for anti-smuggling and other purposes, for which a reformed CBR might not have any use after the automation of process.

According to the sources, as the other government agencies were involved in the anti-smuggling activities, therefore, it was proposed that these Sepahis might be adjusted in the para-military forces.

Similarly, with the merger of the central excise department with sales tax, there would be no use for around 2,000 excise inspectors, the sources said. There were a total of 5,600 superintendents, deputy superintendents and inspectors in indirect taxes, a substantial number of whom may not be needed after the re-engineering process, the sources claimed.

Under the restructured tax machinery, more technical staff would be needed while the non-technical staff would be rendered surplus.

As per the study conducted by the Shahid Hussain task force, the ratio of technical and support staff in the tax machinery at present was 1:12 in income tax and 1:16 in customs. Ideally, this ratio was considered at 1:4 or 1:5, the sources said.

Sources said the government would make investment in the Information Technology to develop National Information Technology structure, having communication support and network which connected all sites. Since the assessment, audit and collection will be made with the support of the Information Technology, a substantial number of persons equipped with skills in the IT will be required.