KARACHI: The officers of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) bemoaned the dropping of their names from the list of promotion from BS-19 to BS-20.
They contended that some elements in the PM Secretariat were giving wrong information about the integrity of the officials.
Most of the officers belonging to Inland Revenue Service (IRS), Pakistan Customs Service (PCS), Karachi tax offices and collectorates have been deprived of due promotions approved by the prime minister.
The frustrating officers said that the Central Selection Board (CSB) had given green signal to the officials after a thorough investigation. “But depriving them of their due right is unimaginable,” said an officer, who was also in the list.
According to the officers, the CSB had recommended 46 officers of IRS and 16 officers of PCS for the next stage promotion. However, 17 IRS officers and eight PCS officers could not make their place in the list of promotion.
The CSB, a powerful body comprising politicians (members of national assembly or senators) federal secretaries, representatives of provincial governments, departmental heads, recommends the promotions after evaluating all aspects of an officer, including the performance, integrity and information received from intelligence agencies. However, the prime minister has discretionary power to reject the recommendation of the CSB.
The officials said that the advisErs were misguiding the prime minister to weaken the present government.
Recently, the FBR initiated scrutiny of its officials and found that a score of officers had not filed their mandatorily income tax returns along with wealth statement and asset declaration.
The aggrieved officers said an officer involved in any activity of living beyond means should be penalised but depriving them of their due right arbitrarily is not justified.
The officials said that the Additional Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad at the PM secretariat had found non-filer of income tax return for the tax year 2013, which could be witnessed by accessing the tax directory posted at FBR’s official website.
The FBR officials said that the government should take action across the board against non-compliant bureaucrats in all the departments.
