KARACHI: The research and statistics department of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has shown dismal performance during the past one year as it failed to disseminate key information about the revenue collection and impacts on the economy.
The last quarterly report updated by the SP&RS was for quarter ending September 2013 and since then no further report is available on the FBR official web site.
Under the government directives all the departments have to update their reports on quarterly and annual basis. The State Bank of Pakistan and other leading departments are regularly updating their reports.
Nisar Muhammad Khan, Member Customs was give additional charge of SP&RS last year but due to lack of interest the information was not passed on to public.
The quarterly reports of the FBR are more important considering the changing scenario in tax system. Such report not only helps the economists to understand the trend of taxes but also helps in forecasting.
FBR sources said that the there were twisting in figures and the revenue authorities wanted to hide it from public. However, uploading after long span of time people would forget the past changes and would only concentrate on current figures.
The latest updates on historical collection in different heads of taxes at SP&RS are also not available, which is showing a weak research section of the FBR.
In the past this section also started updating the latest collection figures on monthly basis but the latest collection is available for March 2012.