The government has stepped up efforts to appoint a new chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) while several senior officers are in the race for the top post.
The chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue is due to retire at the end of this month.
Asim Ahmed, the current chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), who was appointed by the PML-N-led coalition government on April 27 last year, will retire on July 30.
Senior FBR officials believe that the delay in appointing a senior tax officer could lead to uncertainty in the tax department, which will reduce revenue collection on a daily basis.
Therefore, the government can give interim charge to a senior official till the appointment of a regular chairperson.
Sources said that the finance ministry is considering the names of five officers for the post of the new head of the FBR, including two officers of the Inland Revenue Service (IRS) and three officers of the Customs Group (CG).
As far as Inland Revenue Service is concerned, Nadeem Rizvi is serving as FBR member administration, the other candidate is Zubair Tuana who is member operation.
Director General Customs Intelligence Faiz Ahmed, Member Customs Policy Suraiya Ahmed Butt and Member Customs Operations Mukarram Jah Ansari are potential candidates from customs.
However, interviews with senior government officials show that a proposal to consider a possible candidate for the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) is also under review, among the possible candidates whose names are doing the rounds in government circles include Federal Secretaries Rashid Mahmood Langrial, Ali Raza Bhatta, Saleh Farooqi and Dr. Kazim Niaz.
According to one strategy, Finance Minister Nadeem Rizvi can be given the supervisory charge of the FBR, but another proposal is to appoint a PAS officer to run the affairs of the FBR during the supervisory setup.
Sources said Dar will appoint the FBR chairman from among the officers, especially from the tax department, who have worked with him directly or indirectly.
In the past, FBR officials had reacted strongly to the appointment of a junior officer from the tax department or the appointment of a PAS officer as FBR chairman.
