ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to give up the existing policy of hiring a separate building for different tax offices in the same city, which results in loss to the national kitty.

A senior official told Dawn on Tuesday that the issue among others was raised during the first meeting of the visiting IMF team to review the process of restructuring of the tax administration.

The Fund advised the CBR to reduce the numbers of currently hired 300 buildings for offices of sales tax, central excise duty (CED), customs and income tax across the country, which has eaten up major chunk of the budget.

The official said that the CBR was recommended to hire a single large building in each city in which all the taxes should be housed.

The IMF team was of the opinion that this action would not only facilitate the taxpayers but would also save money, the official said.

The IMF team would carry out the review of the progress of the steps taken so far for the restructuring of tax administration till the end of the current month.

When contacted, official spokesman and Member Direct Taxes, Vakil Ahmed Khan, told Dawn that during the meeting the Fund officials stressed the need that the restructuring should be focussed mainly on the introduction of information technology and development of infrastructure in the tax machinery.

The IMF would help the CBR to identify infrastructure needed for the tax machinery.

According to the spokesman, the team agreed with the tax authorities that the reform process would be completed in the span of 5-7 years.

“The Fund would help the CBR in achieving the realization of the restructuring of the tax machinery to provide more facilitation to the taxpayers”, said the spokesman.

The IMF team would also review the strategy reports prepared CBR in consultation with the members hired from the private sector. The Fund would analyse the reports its feasibility with time period before it was finalized for its final implementation.

The board as part of restructuring of CBR has so far taken three major decisions — establishment of large taxpayers unit in Karachi, small and medium taxpayer unit in Lahore and implementation of the new Income Tax Ordinance 2001.