KARACHI: The Sindh Revenue Board, a body tasked to collect sales tax on services, has been running without its basic structure including its members, advisers, secretary and ombudsman, it is learnt.
It is mentioned here that in pursuant to the 7th NFC Award, the Sindh government had decided to impose, assess and collect sales tax on services. Accordingly the Sindh Revenue Board Act, 2010 was promulgated on June 24, 2010 vide Gazette Notification No: PAS/Legis-B-12/2010 having duly received the assent of the Sindh Assembly.
The act provides for the creation of a board to manage, supervise and take all actions necessary towards the administration of sales tax on services. At that formation of board, former federal secretary for sports Nazar Hussain Mahar was made its chairman, later Shakaib Qureshi was selected for the slot.
And after him, Tashfeen K Niaz was made the chairman and his two-year contract finished a couple of months ago, sources told Customs Today.
The structure of the board includes chairman, secretary, member audit, member support services HR and administration, member taxation, member legal and member operations and advisor tax policy. Besides, an ombudsman is also appointed to resolve complaints of the taxpayers.
Interestingly, the affairs of the Board are being controlled just by former chairman Tashfeen K Niaz and Advisor on Tax Policy Mushtaq Kazmi while all the above mentioned posts that included members, secretary are vacant from more than two years, sources added.
In April 2014, the Establishment Division, Government of Pakistan appointed an officer of Audit and Accounts Group Nazeer Ahmed Seehar as Member Audit, Sindh Revenue Board. However, the chairman did not allow him to join and referred the case to the Services General Administration and Coordination Department (SGA&CD) for approval of the competent authority i.e. the chief minister.
The CM approved his (Nazeer Seehar’s) posting and SGA&CD with the approval of Chief Secretary Sindh issued the posting order however once again the chairman SRB did not allow him to join the board.
