Changes in the positions of the head of a regulatory body can be a positive indication of a government recognising a flaw in leadership and trying to rectify it. However, when the leadership is subject to consistent changes, it reflects an institutional weakness and a need for the government to implement serious reforms.

The consistent reshuffles in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) reflect a similar situation. The government removed the chairman of the FBR Asim Ahmad on Tuesday, who was fifth in a slew of shuffles in almost three years. Ahmad was removed after a major cyberattack on taxpayers’ data, which was archived and managed by the FBR for automation. The sixth chairman in three years, Dr Mohammad Ashfaq Ahmed, a BS-21 officer of Inland Revenue Service (IRS), was appointed by the government as his replacement.

It has been speculated that the Prime Minister Secretariat is not happy with the performance of FBR’s top management, particularly over the slow pace of reforms. It is true that digitisation and simplification are not happening at the rate the government wants. The Prime Minister has a big vision for tax collection, and though the FBR was performing better than previous years, structural problems and the prevalence of tax evasion still plagued its management.

However, the question is whether constantly replacing chairmen will mitigate any of those problems—for instance the amnesty scheme being considered by the government to people earning less than Rs1.2 million per year to fight adverse economic effects of Covid-19 and inflation, is along the same lines of amnesty schemes of previous governments which the existing government reversed. Though the government has a vision in sight, it does look to be executing it well and is going about it in circles. The government needs to make a five-year plan on taxation; simply meeting collection targets is not a good enough ask from the chairman.