Pakistan's FBR suspends two officers as PM warns against resistance to tax reforms

Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue said on 19 October that it had suspended two Inland Revenue Service officers and returned two others to its headquarters for investigation after a call to stop work. Dawn reported that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned tax officers against resisting FBR reforms at a weekly briefing in Islamabad that day.

The FBR said the action concerned an unauthorised press statement and a call to stop official work. It described the officers’ conduct as a prima facie violation of its conduct rules and said disciplinary proceedings would be initiated. The suspensions affect one officer in grade BS-20 and another in BS-19; the two officers returned to headquarters are both in BS-20. The agency’s stated grounds are preliminary, with the investigation and disciplinary process still to follow.

Strike call withdrawn after FBR intervention

Faceless tax assessments under discussion

Dawn reported that FBR Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial briefed Sharif on a pilot for faceless tax assessment and audit. Sharif directed him to speed up the system’s rollout in tax collection, according to the report. The briefing placed the dispute over officers’ work alongside a proposed change in how the agency examines tax information.

The National Faceless Centre in Islamabad began its pilot on 1 October with 27 officers, Dawn reported. The pilot covers assessment and audit of third-party data relating to 300,000 to 400,000 individuals. Dawn said the data would be sent to the centre in phases after initial compliance checks. That phased process defines the pilot’s scope; the reported figure does not represent assessments already completed.