ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh chaired the second meeting of the FBR Policy Board here at the FBR Headquarters.
During the meeting, Chairman FBR briefed the Adviser on the efforts the institute has been making to improve the abilities and expertise of its human resource and on the progress of the automation drive of FBR/Customs.
Chairman FBR briefed the Adviser on measures taken and future course planned to improve skills and competence of its staff by providing different in-house and foreign trainings to improve managerial competence and adopt a culture of performance based incentives including promotions. He also briefed the Adviser on the work being done on the IRIS (software) side to consolidate various application platforms into one to improve efficiency and performance.
The Chairman further informed that a technologically advanced sales tax registration verification mechanism is introduced whereby officers with tablets will be sent to capture real time information and pictures including GPS coordinates of businesses requiring verification. Details of data sharing arrangements agreed to by 12 other organizations with FBR were also discussed in the meeting.
The Adviser stressed on the need to establish a link between NADRA and FBR for data sharing and data analytics. He created a subgroup of members to point out and sort the difficulties that are hindering the progress on the data sharing issue between the two organizations. This subgroup consists of Mr. Hammad Azhar, Dr. Ishrat Hussain, Mr.Faiz Kamoka, Chairman FBR and Chairman NADRA; the subgroup will share its report with the chairman in a week. The Adviser took a special notice of the difficulties the traders are facing due to stoppage of containers at the Torkham Border. Member customs informed that necessary steps have been taken and the issue will be resolved within the coming weeks. Mr.Syed Javed shared his recommendations on PRAL and told that CEO PRAL has been appointed. The next meeting of the policy Board will be held by the end of this month and the ToRs of the policy Board will be presented for approval. Mr.Hammad Azhar and Mr.Abdullah Yousaf shall prepare the said ToRs.
