ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has high expectations about increasing the revenue collection with the improved performance of field officers after the completion of infrastructure related projects.
With five major infrastructure related projects, construction work on total 25 projects in going on with full speed and a number of them are likely to be completed within the current fiscal year. All these projects have been approved in the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP).
A well placed official source at FBR told Customs Today that major five under construction infrastructure related projects included Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Gwadar, Regional Income Tax Office Islamabad, Sargodha, Bahawalpur and Gujaranwala. With the completion of these buildings, the FBR will also save millions of rupees which are being paid to the owners of buildings where offices are functioning in rented buildings.
“FBR pays Rs 20 million as rent for MCC Sargodha building alone last year” the source added, saying that a number of smaller projects including tax offices in Charsadda, Pind Dadan Khan and a few other places were near the completion stage and would be handed over the FBR by PWD in the current year.
To a question about the possible positive impacts on revenue collection in the performance of field officers with the completion of these projects, the source said that definitely, FBR bound high expectations about improvement in the performance of field staff regarding the increase in revenue collection.
Presently, field staff remains a little bit under pressure of the owners of buildings in which their offices are located in rented buildings. Once they get free of this kind of pressure with independent official space, they will definitely pursue the tax evaders with more enthusiasm and freedom of mind” the source added.
He further said that FBR, being the government department, was required to get all the infrastructure related projects executed by PWD; therefore, FBR has wait for the completion of these projects by the contractors of PWD.
