ISLAMABAD: Women account for only 9.55 percent of the total filled positions in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), while men occupy more than 90 percent of the workforce, highlighting a significant gender imbalance in the country’s tax administration.
According to gender-wise data on actual filled posts in the FBR, the organisation has a total of 19,549 filled positions across Basic Pay Scales (BPS) 1 to 22. Of these, 16,777 are occupied by men, compared to just 1,772 by women.
The figures show that women constitute approximately 9.55 percent of the FBR’s workforce, whereas male employees account for the remaining 90.45 percent.
The gender disparity is also evident across different pay scales, with female representation varying considerably between senior and lower-level positions.
In the higher grades, BPS 17 to 22 collectively account for 3,198 filled positions, of which 523 are occupied by women and 2,675 by men. Women therefore represent around 16.4 percent of employees in these grades.
Within this category, BPS-18 has 188 female employees out of 794 filled positions, while BPS-19 has 106 women among 464 employees. In BPS-20, female representation stands at 71 out of 306 positions. Meanwhile, BPS-17 has 146 women among 1,576 filled positions.
At the BPS-22 level, three of the eight filled positions are occupied by women, while BPS-21 has nine women among 50 employees.
The situation is more pronounced across BPS 1 to 16, which account for the bulk of the FBR workforce, with 16,351 filled positions. Women occupy 1,249 of these positions, representing approximately 7.6 percent, compared to 15,102 positions held by men.
Among the lower pay scales, BPS-16 has 523 female employees out of 3,117 filled positions, making it the scale with the highest absolute number of female employees in the entire organisation.
Similarly, BPS-13 has 139 women among 1,832 employees, while BPS-11 has 132 female employees out of 1,469 positions.
BPS-5, which has the highest number of filled positions across all pay scales at 3,697, has only 210 female employees, compared to 3,487 men. This means women account for approximately 5.7 percent of employees in this grade.
The figures further show particularly limited female representation in several lower pay scales. BPS-4 has only two women among 593 employees, while BPS-3 has four women out of 588 positions. BPS-2 has 25 women among 1,333 employees, and BPS-1 has 102 women among 1,648 filled positions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026