ISLAMABAD: The caretaker prime minister has granted approval of 140 per cent of FBR’s Headquarters allowance for grade 17 to 22 officers with effect from November 1, 2023.
Just on the pattern of executive allowance given to other ministries/divisions, the government has granted 140pc basic pay allowance to higher grade officers working at the FBR headquarters.
The decision is estimated to cost Rs430 million to the national exchequer on an annual basis, but the government has bound that these expenses would be met only through allocated resources for the FBR during the current fiscal year. Keeping in view the ban on supplementary grants under the ongoing IMF’s Standby Arrangement (SBA) programme, the provision of supplementary grants was banned.
Top official sources confirmed to The News that the FBR did not bother to forward the summary for endorsement of the finance secretary, and it was directly forwarded to the PM Secretariat. One FBR officer, deputed at the PM Secretariat on deputation played a critical role in getting approval of the allowance.
The officers deputed at the FBR headquarters are getting different incentives as they secured at least 15 awards on a per annum basis while they also managed 3 to 4 awards of their basic pay on the occasion of achieving quarterly envisaged tax collection targets.
There is another perception that exists within and outside ranks of the bureaucracy that the field formation officers of the tax department could manage their financial affairs very well as they were not dependent upon just their salary accounts so there was no need to increase their monthly salary. However, the officers working in far-flung cities have been deprived of hiring facilities of houses.
However, the staff at the FBR working in grades 1 to 16 have been ignored, though they were getting meagre salaries.
According to a notification, issued by the Regulation Wing of the Ministry of Finance on Friday titled ‘Rationalisation of Allowance of Federal Board of Revenue Headquarters’ by stating that the undersigned was directed to convey the approval of the PM for grant of FBR Headquarters Allowance at the rate of 140pc of Basic Pay as on June 30, 2022 with effect from Nov 1, 2023 subject to following conditions:
The FBR Headquarters Allowance, 2023 would be admissible to the officers having substantive pay scale in BPS 17-22 posted at FBR Headquarters Islamabad only.
FBR Performance Allowance and Fixed FBR Incentive would cease to be admissible for these BPS 17-22 officers. Contribution towards excess rent in case of house requisition above rental ceiling would be discontinued.
The terms and conditions, for admissibility of the allowance would be the same as for other allowances admissible across the board in the federal government.
The expenditure involved would be met by the FBR from its allocated budget for FY 2023-24. No additional funds would be granted for the CFY 2023-24.
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