LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) employees would observe a pen down strike across the country on June 17, to highlight their demand for a pay raise and increase in the fuel allowance, a statement said.
The aggrieved have also said that they will observe a pen down strike for even longer periods if their demands were not met.
The employees have been demanding to de-freeze their IJP allowance for many years, but the same has not been approved even in the budget for fiscal year 2023, according to the statement.
The officers are demanding a pay raise in terms of special revenue allowance and increased fuel allowance, being the sole federal breadwinning organisation that has been achieving its budgetary targets.
The aggrieved informed that all the demands have been forwarded to the FBR chairman through proper channels.
The officials of the FBR were ensured a pay raise in the budget but the same was removed from the bill at the eleventh hour, which caused distress among the employees.
The prime minister has de-freeze the allowance of all employees of the president’s house and prime minister’s secretariat, but the government denied the same right to FBR employees.
Several other federal government institutions have been given a pay raise and increase in various allowances in the recent budget but the same has been denied to the FBR workforce despite showing exceptional performance, with regards to achieving their budgetary targets.
Though finance minister Miftah Ismail congratulated the FBR for collecting Rs490 billion revenue in May 2022, yet the long standing demand of de-freezing the IJP allowance of the officials, and that of pay raise was overlooked in the budget.
The federal budget 2020/21 stated that FBR revenues increased by 17 per cent and the government was on track to achieve the revised target of Rs4.8 trillion, which was then achieved accordingly.
Likewise, in the financial year 2021/22, the net revenue collection grew to Rs5.34 trillion billion during July-May of fiscal year 2021/22 as against the collection of Rs4.16 trillion during July-May of the same period of fiscal year 2021 with a 28.4 per cent growth.
The FBR employees have been observing Saturday as a working day for the past six months unlike all the other federal and provincial government organisations, and these employees always go an extra mile to perform their duties.
The aggrieved called it ironic that the FBR employees are deprived of their basic rights amid the inflation crisis.
