ISLAMABAD-Federal cabinet on Tuesday extended the service tenure of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Javed Ghani.
In July this year, the federal government had assigned the additional charge of chairman FBR to member Customs Javed Ghani for a period of three months or till the appointment of regular chairman FBR after removing Nausheen Javed from the post. Later, the government had further extended the service tenure of chairman FBR for three months. However, the federal cabinet on Tuesday appointed Javad Ghani as FBR chairman on permanent basis.
The government has performed well in last months in terms of tax collection by surpassing the target in last five months (July to November) of the current fiscal year. The FBR tax collection surpassed the target of Rs 1669 billion by Rs 19 billion during first five months (July to November) of current fiscal year. Net collection grew by 4 percent to Rs 1688 billion during July-November, FY2021 against Rs 1623 billion in the comparable period of last year. Within total collection, direct taxes stood at Rs 577 billion, sales tax Rs 743 billion, federal excise duty Rs 104 billion and customs duty Rs 264.4 billion. The ongoing increase in FBR tax collection clearly indicates that efforts to improve the revenues through comprehensive tax measures and administrative reforms are paying off.
The ministry of finance had recently expressed hope that FBR would meet the ambitious revenue collection target of Rs 2,210 billion during first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year. “Despite a fast tracking of refunds, FBR tax collection has increased. It is expected that FBR’s concerted efforts to improve the tax collection through various policy and administrative measures will give further rise to tax collection in the coming months. Moreover, with the current pace of tax collection, FBR is likely to achieve its tax collection target for the first half of current fiscal year,” said the Economic Adviser’s Wing of the Ministry of Finance in its Monthly Economic Update & Outlook (MEUO).
The PTI government in 28 months in power has appointed fourth chairman FBR. The PTI government after coming into power in August 2018 had appointed Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan as chairman FBR. He headed the FBR from 29th August 2018 to 10th May 2019. Later, the government had appointed tax expert Shabbar Zaidi as new head of the tax department. Zaidi remained chairman FBR from 10th May 2019 to April 8 2020. However, Shabbar Zaidi refused to continue due to medical reasons. The government had then appointed Nausheen Javaid Amjad as new chairman FBR on April 8 2020 and removed her on July 4 2020.