LAHORE: The Lahore Tax Bar Association (LTBA) has shown serious concern over what it said ‘systematic failures’ within the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and urged the prime minister to look into it as it is posing serious threats to the national economy and the credibility of the premier revenue collecting agency.
In a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, LTBA President Rana M Asif and General Secretary Mian Asad Hanif said that persistent, and systemic governance failures prevailing within the FBR and the practices presently observed within its field formations reflect serious institutional deficiencies that demand urgent and decisive intervention at the highest level.
If left unaddressed, these issues pose a serious threat to institutional credibility, voluntary compliance, sustainable revenue mobilization, and the broader reform agenda of the government, they observed.
“Collective systematic failures, including delay in notifications of income tax forms, unlawful exercise of recovery powers, unjustified raids and inspections, arbitrary imposition of embargoes, unlawful recovery of advance tax, IRIS system downtime and operational failures etc contain serious institutional flaws and need special attention of the PM.”
Moreover, the letter said that deficient digital governance and oversight, chronic delay in issuance of refunds, undue hurdles in filing sales tax returns under SRO 350(I)/2024, poor quality and arbitrary assessment orders, issuance of unlawful notices for harassment and undue suspension and blacklisting of sales tax registrations are also shattering the confidence of the taxpayers.
In the letter, it has been further highlighted that persistent failures in governance within the FBR negatively impact Pakistan’s standing in international governance indicators, investor risk assessments, and ease-of-doing-business perceptions. Likewise, development partners, international financial institutions, and global investors view weak tax administration and lack of due process as indicators of institutional fragility, the letter pointed out. These systematic failures within the FBR are having an adverse impact on the national economy, the letter added.
“The prevailing enforcement-centric and unpredictable regulatory environment within the FBR has significantly discouraged both domestic and foreign investment. Arbitrary assessments, sudden recoveries, raids, embargoes, and suspension of registrations create an atmosphere of uncertainty and regulatory risk,” the LTBA office-bearers observed in the letter.
It pointed out that rather than functioning as a facilitator of economic growth and reform, the current enforcement-centric approach of the FBR has become a structural impediment to national development. By prioritizing coercion over compliance, and short-term recoveries over long-term growth, the tax administration inadvertently suppresses investment, employment, exports, and revenue sustainability, undermining the very objectives it is mandated to achieve, it concluded.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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