LAHORE  - The Federal Board of Revenue is not adopting transparent manners in reward scheme for its thousands of employees, which was initiated to encourage them to maximise their efforts for achieving the desired tax collection target but this scheme is virtually limited to Islamabad board office, officials said.
According to them, the reward included four additional salaries to officers and 75 percent allowance for their subordinate staff in case of achieving 100 percent tax collection target in their jurisdictions, officials said. In case of achieving 80 percent target, the FBR had proposed two additional salaries for the staff.
Now the fact is that blue-eyed officers are being rewarded despite missing target while field staff, including inspectors, who actually make target possible by their efforts, are being neglected.
For example the Intelligence Branch of the Lahore regional tax office has recovered Rs 2 billion in cash from the tax evaders in steel sector but no reward was announced for this high performance of the inspectors, officials said. On the other way, the RTO I chief commissioner Shafqat Mehmood was given incentives in the form of two salaries without considering the fact whether target has been achieved or not. Likewise, the field staff in RTO II, Zone 9, unit 4, has surpassed the revenue collection target of Rs320 million to Rs356 million in May - two months earlier of the closing date of fiscal year. But no reward was announced for the inspectors rather the officer was chosen for cash money.
The inspectors and UDCs including Amir Nazir, Malik Akram Khokhar, Azhar Hayat, Shafqat Ali and Syed Naeem Abbas etc are those workers who have achieved the target in their respective units but only their officers were selected for prizes.
The Federal Revenue Alliance Employees Union central president Mian Abdul Qayyum claimed that staff of RTOs is sitting till 8 pm in the office while in closing dates they have to attend offices till 12 at night. The workers have availed no leave for the last two months with attending office on Saturdays and some time on Sundays. But the credit is given only to chief commissioners and commissioners for achieving revenue target.
Officers in Islamabad board office claim overtime for additional work and they managed to get dues, besides receiving reward money in shape of 3-4 salaries. He demanded the authorities that like the officers of board office, the overtime should also be given to the whole staff of all field offices, as banking sector also pays for work on Saturdays and Sundays. He disclosed that RTO I and II CCs and commissioners in recent meetings have decided to exclude the names of those workers from the reward list who are union office-bearers despite the fact they have achieved target, which is absolutely illegal. He warned the officers to shun this discrimination and adopt transparency by giving award only on merit to support govt efforts of maximising tax collection.