Freezing of special allowance: FBR seeks special dispensation by finance minister

The Federal Revenue Alliance Employees Union delegation led by Central President Mian Abdul Qayyum held successful parleys with FBR Chairman Salman Siddiq here on Wednesday, as the tax authorities have written a letter to the finance minister asking for special dispensation against freezing of special allowance of FBR employees.
In a letter to Minister for Finance Abdul Hafiz Sheikh, the FBR Chairman said that the freezing of the special allowance of the FBR employees would have a demoralising impact and the reform process and revenue collection activities may suffer in the field formations.
He said the Finance Division has capped admissibility of Special Allowance equivalent to 100 percent of basic pay while sanctioning the revision of basic pay scales, allowances and pension wef July 1, 2011 for the civil servants of the federal government.

In the year 2001 the employees of FBR were allowed special allowance equal to 100 percent of the basic pay as living wage for their integrity management, improving image amongst the stakeholders and to increase revenue collection under Tax Administrations Reforms Project. The living wage concept provides specific guidelines for evolving specific selection criteria, identification of specific jobs within the organisations and the continuity or otherwise of the payment of special allowance. The criteria evolved to allow special allowance was that:
First, the special allowance is to be paid against predefined special post requiring skills and competencies.
Second, the FBR personnel are to be posted through a transparent, merit based competitive selection process.
Third, the continuity of special allowance is to be ensured through product review.
The FBR has also evolved guiding principles for entitlement, continuation/discontinuation and the duration for payment of special allowance. Under the guiding principles, special allowance has been made as performance allowance and not paid to the employees across the board, the FBR Chairman said.
Salman Siddiq added that the admissibility of the allowance has highly motivated the workforce to work whole heartedly in order to achieve revenue targets set by the federal government. Freezing of the allowance would have a demoralising impact and the reform process and revenue collection activities may suffer.
Keeping in view the entire spectrum of the admissibility of the allowance, it is recommended that the grievances of the employees may passionately be redressed and the frozen benefit be restored as a special dispensation, the FBR Chairman said.
During the meeting, the union leadership including Mian Abdul Qayyum, Chief Co-ordinator Rashid Shah, Chief Organiser Malik Amir Riaz, RTO Rawalpindi President Ijaz Iqbal Raja, Pakistan Customs Rao Nusrat Ali and Syed Zaidi along with Qasim Baloch and Sadiq Qureshi thanked the FBR Chairman for honouring his promise of regularising the union's allowance.
While eulogising the chairman's role, they said that as a head of the department he played a significant role in resolving the issue, however added that they will continue their peaceful protest until issuance a formal notification in this regard.