Sindh Revenue Board in hands of daily wagers

As the Sindh has been collecting General Sales Tax (GST) on services under the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, after a lengthy argument a fight, more than 75 daily wagers are running the affairs of the province’s premier tax collecting body – Sindh Revenue Board – since its formation, it is learnt.
Although, the Sindh government has succeeded in pleading the case on the fundamental right of sales tax collection on services, however, the present authorities are running the affairs of Sindh Revenue Board by appointing the daily wagers.
The daily wagers, according to sources, have been appointed against the permanent employees, as the present authorities particularly the chairman and its team did not want to induct regular employees with a view to show their influence on the tax body, well-placed sources in the Sindh Revenue Board told Pakistan Today.
After receiving a go-head from the centre to collect general sales tax (GST) on services, the provincial government had established Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) for collecting the tax under the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award from July 2011.
Initially, the formation of an administrative setup of the provincial tax collecting body was suspended for a period of one year while the Sindh government had allowed the centre to collect taxes through the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The main office of the Sindh Revenue Board has been set up on 9th Floor of Shaheen Complex near the II Chundrigar Road. At the time of induction of the staff, the present chairman, a retired person, Nazar Hussain Mahar, vehemently objected to the hiring of staff on permanent basis and preferred daily wagers to run the body.
However, the senior officials, majority of them have close-link with the chairman, were brought from different departments like excise and taxation, education, planning and development, fisheries and livestock and several others for the sake of heavy allowances, perks and privileges.
Furthermore, the sources alleged that the daily wagers were appointed in the SRB in return of heavy bribe with the alleged patronage of chairman and his team that included a deputationist namely Iqbal Lakho. Sources claimed that Iqbal Lakho, an officer of the Sindh Planning and Development Department, presently Deputy Commissioner SRB Headquarters, had got inducted at least 15 daily wagers due to his close links with the chairman. Besides, Lakho had also collected heavy cash for the job on daily wages.
In Mahar’s tenure as ACS (Development), the lecturers from the colleges side BPS 17 and 18 are called and made in-charges of newly created cells/units such as GBS, SCIP, PPPU, SGRRP, TEVTA and the salary for these officials had been fixed at Rs 150,000, besides project allowances not less than Rs 50,000 per month.