No reason for NBR officials to worry over division: Salehuddin

Dividing the NBR into two separate entities will not harm the interests of NBR officials, Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed said today (13 May).

"Read the ordinance carefully. Their interests are fully protected. There will be a policy division. It's a tiny division. Therefore, there's no reason for NBR to worry," he told reporters when asked about the division of NBR allegedly ignoring the customs tax cadres officials' opinions.

The adviser added that the policy and implementation divisions don't stay together, they are separate in all countries.

"The policy division needs to work with professional people. They need to understand economics, statistics, and the country's GDP. What NBR will do is implement the policies. 

"Now, if NBR does policy too, there's a conflict of interest as their job is only to collect. As if I am making the policy and collecting through people by implementing that policy," said Salehuddin after a meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Government Purchase (ACCGP) at the Secretariat.

Mentioning that the division has been done with great consideration, Salehuddin said, "It's not that we haven't talked with them (NBR officials). If you think I need to talk with thousands of NBR people, that's not the case. I've talked with members. On the other hand, administration people had some comments as well. So we discussed it with them."

Asked whether the dissolution of NBR into two divisions would have any impact on revenue collection, he said, "There will be no impact on revenue collection. So far, revenue collection has already increased by 2% compared to last year. It's not very disappointing, but I'm expecting more. At least it won't be less than last time."

'No money will be printed to implement budget'

Stating that a highly realistic Annual Development Programme (ADP) will be adopted in the next fiscal year's budget, the finance adviser said the government will not implement the budget by borrowing from banks or printing money.

"We will not undertake mega projects through borrowing and creating deficits. We will implement the budget reasonably, not with a huge gap. We won't implement the budget by borrowing from banks or printing money," he said after the meeting of the Advisory Council Committee, which he chaired.

Salehuddin said, "There will be some deficit. To fill that, I'm negotiating. We're talking about projects with the IMF and the World Bank. The discussions so far are quite successful."