LAHORE: The employees of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) continued their strike on third consecutive day. The strike began on last Friday after the federal government ignored the proposal of a meaningful increase in the salary of FBR employees in the federal budget 2022-23, besides freezing of the performance allowance, thus setting a discriminatory example.
The FBR employees through their representatives had submitted their demands regarding de-freezing of performance allowance and demanded an executive allowance on the pattern of provincial government and several other federal government departments and threatened to observe pen down strikes. In continuation of their announcement, a strike was observed on Friday which was followed by more aggressive show of strength on Saturday. It continued even on Monday after the weekly day-off.
Tax offices were locked by staff and rallies were held across the country. Young officer of Inland Revenue service also joined the staff members. Sources have confirmed that core group of officers and officials are determined to continue their strike till their demand is met by the government.
It may be noted that the FBR employees have started their strike in the crucial month of June, as any functional logjam at this moment may compromise government’s revenue targets for the ongoing year and beyond. All major formations observed strike while locking their offices taking out rallies in major cities.
The country’s top revenue body was assigned the target of Rs 6,100 billion early this year. Estimates show that the organization is well placed to achieve this gigantic revenue target. This target, if divided over twelve months, becomes Rs500 billion per month.
Meanwhile, sources from the Large Tax Office (LTO) Lahore told this scribe that main tax compliances have already been addressed as the deadline set for depositing of sales tax is 15th of every month and the strike took off from 17th June onwards. Similarly, payments under the income tax have also been materialized and only negotiations against penalties are underway with the taxpayers. The sources said only the small field formations are carrying full-fledged strike against the demands. Otherwise, so far as major field formations are concerned, routine working is being carried out due to the importance of the month of June in terms of tax collection. Accordingly, no major revenue loss is expected due to the ongoing strike, they added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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