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CBR abolishes 6 posts of members, sidelines 2

JAVED MEHMOOD

ISLAMABAD: Implementing much-awaited key-structural changes within the tax machinery, the Revenue Division on Friday abolished six posts of members, sidelined Members Customs and Sales Tax and appointed some new members, it was learnt.

Earlier, the CBR had strength of 13 members that had now been trimmed to seven (7) only. The posts of Member Audit, Member Public Affairs, Member Human Resource Development, Member Management Information Services and Members Judicial, both direct and indirect taxes, were abolished on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Revenue Division sidelined the sitting Member Customs Anwar Ali and Member Sales Tax SM Kazmi and picked up Mir Fuad and Sarfraz Ahmed Khan in their place respectively.

The members, whose posts had been slashed, are Jameel Ahmed Bhutto, Member Tax Policy; Farooq Nisar, Member Public Affairs; Altaf Iqbal, Member Audit; Farooq Ahmed Malik, Member Management Information Services (MIS); Mohammad Munir Qureshi, Member Human Resource Development Mohammad Sarwar, Member Judicial (Direct Taxes) and Member Judicial, Indirect Taxes.

Among the new members will be Mansoor Ahmed, Member Direct Taxes; Sarfraz Ahmed Khan, Member Sales Tax; Mir Fuad, Member Customs; Mohsin Asad, Member Central Excise; Asad Arif, Member Tax Policy, Shuja Shah, Member Exports and Riaz Malik, Member Coordination. Riaz Malik will also handle the task of streamlining and simplification of General Sales Tax law, rules and procedures.

Newly-appointed Member Customs, Mir Fuad; Mansoor Ahmed, Member Direct Taxes are the new faces in the Central Board of Revenue. Mohsin Asad was Member Administration and now he had been picked up as Member Central Excise while Asad Arif, previously Member Direct Taxes, has been appointed as Member Tax Policy in place of Jameel Ahmed Bhutto.

The new Member Sales Tax, Sarfraz Ahmed Khan, has already served on this post in 1997 and he was ousted from the CBR when he refused to entertain the unlawful requests of the rich businessmen, having influence in the Nawaz Sharif government.

Sources told Business Recorder that among the sidelined members, only those would be retained who belong to tax administration and the rest, belonging to the Establishment Division, would be sent back.

Sources disclosed that these structural changes in the CBR were made with the consent of Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf, and Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz.

They said the entire wing of public affairs has been shelved with immediate effect and the aliens in this wing would be sent back to their parent department.

The services of Member Public Affairs, Farooq Nisar, who was deputed in the CBR on contract basis, may be terminated as his post has been abolished while Khalid Shahbaz deputy director, Public Affairs, CBR, has been sent back to the Establishment Division.

Sources hinted at some more important structural changes within the rank and file of the Central Board of Revenue within the next few days.