ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has declared contract-appointed Sub-Inspectors at Digital Enforcement Stations and Goods Evaluators at Centralized Assessment Units to be “officers of Customs,” according to a notification issued under clause (g) of section 3 of the Customs Act, 1969.
The appointees were hired through the Institute of Business Administration, a private university, rather than through the Federal Public Service Commission, the body that appoints Appraising Officers and entitles them to full government benefits including promotions and pensions. The evaluators are contractual employees paid roughly Rs200,000 per month and will not receive pensions, an official said.
The arrangement has raised concerns among officials who question why a private university was chosen over the Public Service Commission, calling the appointments suspicious and suggesting a lack of confidence in the commission. The official said Customs is short of appraising staff and that the evaluators should have been hired through the Public Service Commission, which offers a more secure process.
Sources said all FBR functions, including Inland Revenue and Customs, will be outsourced to a Lahore-based university backed by a senior minister.
It may be mentioned that FBR is crumbling. The government has approved another $200 million foreign loan to reform the FBR, bringing total loans for tax system modernization to almost $5 billion. The Central Development Working Party has recommended the Rs57.1 billion ($200 million) Transforming and Digitalising Revenue Administration project for approval and sent it to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council. The project is proposed to be financed through an Asian Development Bank loan.
Of the total cost, $81 million (Rs22.5 billion) has been earmarked for consultancy services the FBR would procure over five years, and another $10 million has been approved for project management costs.
Successive governments have taken loans in the name of reforming the FBR, but the tax machinery has failed to meet expectations, missing the last two fiscal years’ tax targets. The tax-to-GDP ratio remained stagnant at 10.3% in fiscal year 2025-26.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned tax officers that resistance to the ongoing reforms would not be tolerated and directed authorities to implement measures to minimize the country’s tax gap. The warning came during a weekly briefing on tax reforms, following a call for a pen-down strike by the Inland Revenue Officers Association that was later withdrawn after intervention by senior FBR officials.
FBR Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial briefed the prime minister on the pilot project for faceless assessment and audit. A source privy to the meeting told Dawn that the prime minister expressed displeasure over the strike announcement. “We will not tolerate any resistance against the ongoing reforms in the FBR,” Shehbaz was quoted as saying, adding that officers unwilling to work would be asked to leave.
The prime minister reminded tax officers that their salaries had been increased fourfold and that they had been provided vehicles and accommodation. “We have extended every facility to these officers,” he said, adding that it was now their responsibility to deliver results.
The FBR has established the National Faceless Centre in Islamabad, where dedicated wings will handle audits and assessments through a faceless system aimed at reducing official discretion and direct contact between tax officials and taxpayers. Initially staffed by 27 officers, the center has been tasked with auditing and assessing third-party data relating to 300,000 to 400,000 individuals under a pilot project that took effect Oct. 1.
