Separate incentive policies for NBR wings on cards
Doulot Akter Mala | Saturday, 26 March 2011
Doulot Akter Mala
The finance ministry has instructed the revenue board to frame separate policies for its three wings - income tax, value added tax (VAT) and customs - to provide incentives to the taxmen on the basis of individual performance. The finance division of the ministry gave the directive recently to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to prepare policies following the rules of business of each wing of the revenue board. Providing incentives is an effective global strategy to prevent corruption in the tax administration and ensure efficiency of the revenue collectors. In a letter, the division has asked the revenue board to sent proposals seeking incentives on the basis of previous year's performance on surpassing revenue collection target. "The nature and type of tax collection of the three departments of the revenue board are different. The role of revenue officials of all the wings is not equal," the letter said. Honest, efficient and skilled officials may lose the spirit of work if the government provides the same amount of incentive to all levels of officials on the basis of overall tax collection by accumulating all the revenue collected by different departments, it added. The ministry prefers providing incentives on the basis of department-wise revenue collection to give honour to the officials who deserve the same, it said. "It is quite logical to provide incentives to the officials on the basis of individual performance on department-wise success on revenue collection," the letter said. The ministry stressed the need for preparing a specific policy with legitimate framework, clear objective, transparent and easy to administer and specific performance indicator for getting maximum output of incentives. Meanwhile, revenue board officials expressed their dissatisfaction over the recent instruction on separate policy for each department on the basis of individual performance. Some of the staff of the NBR said they will not be entitled to get incentives on revenue collection if the government frames such policies. They said only field-level officials who are directly linked with revenue collection will get the incentives, but all of the officials and staff are involved with the achievement of the NBR. Officials said the government is yet to allocate the incentives for the revenue collection success for the previous year. They said the revenue board chief last week issued a letter to the finance ministry requesting it to provide the incentives soon.
The finance ministry has instructed the revenue board to frame separate policies for its three wings - income tax, value added tax (VAT) and customs - to provide incentives to the taxmen on the basis of individual performance. The finance division of the ministry gave the directive recently to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to prepare policies following the rules of business of each wing of the revenue board. Providing incentives is an effective global strategy to prevent corruption in the tax administration and ensure efficiency of the revenue collectors. In a letter, the division has asked the revenue board to sent proposals seeking incentives on the basis of previous year's performance on surpassing revenue collection target. "The nature and type of tax collection of the three departments of the revenue board are different. The role of revenue officials of all the wings is not equal," the letter said. Honest, efficient and skilled officials may lose the spirit of work if the government provides the same amount of incentive to all levels of officials on the basis of overall tax collection by accumulating all the revenue collected by different departments, it added. The ministry prefers providing incentives on the basis of department-wise revenue collection to give honour to the officials who deserve the same, it said. "It is quite logical to provide incentives to the officials on the basis of individual performance on department-wise success on revenue collection," the letter said. The ministry stressed the need for preparing a specific policy with legitimate framework, clear objective, transparent and easy to administer and specific performance indicator for getting maximum output of incentives. Meanwhile, revenue board officials expressed their dissatisfaction over the recent instruction on separate policy for each department on the basis of individual performance. Some of the staff of the NBR said they will not be entitled to get incentives on revenue collection if the government frames such policies. They said only field-level officials who are directly linked with revenue collection will get the incentives, but all of the officials and staff are involved with the achievement of the NBR. Officials said the government is yet to allocate the incentives for the revenue collection success for the previous year. They said the revenue board chief last week issued a letter to the finance ministry requesting it to provide the incentives soon.