ISLAMABAD, July 24: The government is likely to give final touches to the steps for the restructuring of the tax administration here on Thursday.

Official sources told Dawn that all the issues related to the restructuring plan would be discussed at length in the Supervisory Council’s meeting to be presided over by Federal Finance Minister, Shaukat Aziz.

Elaborating further, the officials said that the meeting would discuss the report of the Human Resource Management (HRM) wing of the CBR on the downsizing and right sizing as part of restructuring.

According to the report, in the first step HRM worked out around 5,000 employees in the tax machinery, which were identified as non-technical surplus.

The meeting would also discuss the possible autonomy for CBR within government structure in terms of finances as well as unnecessary intervention by the intelligence agencies.

The HRM has also prepared a comprehensive report on recruitment procedures that will emphasize on CBR relevant specials skills, a move to more merit-based performance related bonuses.

The officials said that finance minister will be briefed on the remaining three major milestones under the tax reforms programme agreed with International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to the plan, CBR will have to implement revised sales tax and customs refund rules and procedures by September 30, prepare customs administrative reform plan by September 30 and model income tax office for small and medium taxpayers in Lahore by October 31.