ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk appointed Rukhsana Yasmin, a BS-22 officer, as the new chairman of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and transferred and posted former FBR chairman, Tariq Mahmood Pasha, as Secretary Statistics.
Sources said after taking notice of mega corruption cases including Rs 1,000 billion green channel illegal clearances by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and Chairman NAB Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, the former FBR chairman was facing tough situation as DG Intelligence Shaukat Ali admitted ‘merciless misuse’ of green channel facility but other top FBR and Customs officials were giving ‘all is well’ report. The issue became so hot that it reached to the PM House after CJP’s notice and the PM had to take this decision of transfer of Tariq Pasha. It is expected that action could be taken against other high officials of FBR and Customs Dept in green channel mega scam.
Sources said new FBR Chairman Rukhsana Yasmin is a very honest officer and she always worked for betterment of FBR through enhanced efforts for increasing revenue collection. It is expected she would take notice of mega corruption cases including Rs 1000 billion green channel mega scam. Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had taken notice of rampant corruption at FBR and now the CJP and NAB Chairman took notice of green channel mega scandal.
Sources said DG Shaukat Ali has recently admitted ‘excessive misuse’ of green channel facility with alleged connivance of customs staff and recommended urgent action to arrest haemorrhage of state revenue. After DG’s shocking admission, genuine importers expect prompt action by new FBR chairman against green channel fraudsters to avoid billions of rupees revenue losses.
It is pertinent to mention here that it was only Customs Today which exposed green channel mega scandal upon which the CJP took notice and ordered the FBR authorities including Member Customs Zahid Khokhar, Chief Collector Appraisement South Abdul Rasheed Sheikh and DG Customs Intelligence and Investigation Shaukat Ali to submit reply within 10 days. The court associate had sent letter to Chairman NAB for necessary action.
Ms. Rukhsana Yasmin is the senior most officer of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) having experience of working both in Pakistan Customs Service (PCS) and Inland Revenue Service (IRS). Rukhsana Yasmeen belongs to 11th Common Course. On Customs side she has worked in different field formation as Collector, Additional Collector, Deputy Collector and Assistant Collector for more than 25 years. She opted to join new service group IRS in 2010. She was promoted to Grade-22 in 2016. In IRS, she served as Commissioner, Chief Commissioner and Member of Federal Board of Revenue.
She holds a masters degree in Economics from University of Punjab and MSc (Fiscal Studies) University of Bath, UK. She attended various foreign training courses/programs at many countries including training at IMF-Institute, Singapore, ITC-Switzerland, RIPA-London, Taxation organization at Turkey and Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Sydney, Australia. She was part of the reforms team from the beginning and played a key role in initial designing of IT solutions for sales tax. In FBR she was leading a reforms project for revamping of Risk Assessment and Management System (RAMS) for selection of cases for audit. Currently she is working as Secretary, Government of Pakistan, Statistics Division. She is keen reader; her interest area is social economics and public finance.
