ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh is not happy with the performance of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) due to slow pace of revenue collection and lack of any vision, it has been learnt reliably.
He expressed his reservations during his visit to the FBR office where he grilled the FBR officers over bad performance. His visit to FBR came a day after the board announced that the shortfall of revenue collection in the first half of the ongoing fiscal year reached Rs284 billion. He asked the tax collectors to improve their performance for meeting the revenue collection targets.
In a separate meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office the same day, the fiance advisor once again questioned the performance of the FBR. In the meeting, Hafeez maintained that the FBR had could not achieve the fundamental targets of enhancing tax collection and expanding revenue base despite all-out support from Prime Minister Imran Khan premier and Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed bajwa.
It has been learnt Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi have developed differences as the latter’s direct access to the prime minister and more visits to the PM Office than the Ministry of Finance have angered the former. It is pertinent to mention here that FBR chairman Shabbar Zaidi is on a 15-day leave and will resume office on January 19.
On the other hand, the FBR chairman claims that there was 16 percent growth in the revenue collections as compared to last year while Hafeez Shaikh questioned the authenticity of the figures during one of the meetings. Hafeez Shaikh deems the shortfalls in revenue collection as a serious risk to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
