An action plan for the FBR

The FBR is one of the biggest organizations of the government of Pakistan, spread across various locations across the country. Unfortunately it has only managed to collect tax from a very small part of of Pakistan’s total population of 190 million. Over the years, FBR has utilized a number of international donor-funded improvement projects, mostly on loan which was to be paid from the tax payers money, but even still it has not managed to add more than 3 million (1.5%) on the National Tax Number list. While, on the other hand, the relatively younger office of the Election Commission of Pakistan has verified more than 90 million (47%) voters already. If the current tax base is increased from 1.5% to 50%, then Pakistan will not need the aid or loans of any other nation or organization in the future. The people of Pakistan will not need to pay high sales tax or import taxes or even high petrol/diesel cost, etc.
But before we take any drastic measures, I do have a solution for this conundrum. The current president of Pakistan or the head of FBR can impose an Act for each and every employee being paid from the FBR budget, that each tax officer would add records of 50 new tax payers to the NTN list by the end of 3 months. And whoever fails to provide the details of the required number of new tax payers in the required time would be removed from service the same day. Each new record should have the company number of the person providing the data, and if the data provided is found to be fake, then the person who provided this information will be removed from service.
FBR has around 52,000 employees. If this program is run for one year, for 3 months each time, then by the end of the year the FBR will have 10.5 million (5.5%) new tax payers on record. It will be a new achievement for the FBR to have at least 5% of the population as its tax base. Also on the plus side, all those employees who fail to help in the increase of the tax base of Pakistan, will be removed from service and this will help reduce the extra costs at FBR, as only hard working and honest employees will be left in one of the most important institution for Pakistan’s successful future.
SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER
Peshawar