FBR Chairman axed while on visit to Russia

ISLAMABAD - The government on Wednesday terminated the service contract of Chairman Federal Board of Revenue, Abdullah Yusuf, who is in Russia to negotiate a bilateral agreement.
The federation appointed Ahmad Viqar, as new Chairman FBR with additional charge of Revenue Division. He was working as Secretary Board of Investment.
There was a speculation that the government would remove Abdullah Yusuf, who was also the Secretary General, due to his close relations with President Pervez Musharraf. Nobody was expecting it at a time when Abdullah Yusuf was on an official foreign tour.
He went to Geneva last Sunday to participate in World Trade Organization talks and landed in Moscow on Wednesday to negotiate a bilateral tariff agreement. He was scheduled to return to Pakistan on coming Monday.
“The norms and more than manners are reflection of mature and confident government and society. Here everything is in a flux so no one should expect more than manners”, said a government official on removal of Abdullah Yusuf when he was abroad.
Abdullah Yusuf took charge of FBR in March 2004 and served in the Board for over four years. He reached to superannuation age in March 2008 but the previous government handed him over a three years contract in June 2007, much before his retirement age.
Reforms in complicated tax system are considered a failure of the outgoing chairman. The Board had launched a multi-million dollar World Bank funded programme to reform the complex tax system and facilitate the taxpayers. Even after passage of several years, the tax authorities could not complete the process.
The outgoing Chairman takes the credit of crossing Rs 1000 billion revenue collection barrier. When he took the charge, the annual revenue collection was around Rs 500 billion. The independent economists do not give him this credit due to Board’s reliance on indirect taxes.
Ahmad Viqar had remained Secretary Finance during the last days of Shaukat Aziz-led government. Then in caretaker setup he was reportedly sent on forced leave due to a dispute with “some high-ups”. In a recent bureaucratic reshuffle, he was made Secretary BOI.
Monitoring Desk adds: Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Shahzada Alam has been removed from his post, reported a private TV channel late on Wednesday.
Yasin Ahmed has been appointed new PTA Chairman, and he is likely to resume his office soon. A notification in this connection has been issued, the channel added.