Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Malik Amjad Zubair Tiwana, has requested early retirement following ongoing conflicts with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Sources informed NetMag that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had been consistently critical of Tiwana’s performance in their recent meetings. Tiwana even missed his scheduled Monday meeting at the PM House. He has chosen to retire effective August 15th, six months before his official retirement date. This decision had been under consideration even before the budget announcement due to persistent pressure and interference from the PMO.
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Tiwana submitted his retirement request to the Finance Division on Monday evening. Should his request be approved, his departure will likely trigger competition among the Customs Group, Inland Revenue Service (IRS), and the influential Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) for the chairman position.
The decision to retire stems from direct intervention by the Prime Minister’s Office and the prime minister’s dissatisfaction with tax-related matters. A particularly contentious meeting last Friday, where the prime minister expressed frustration over various FBR issues, led to Tiwana’s decision to step down.
Key disagreements included the construction of FBR office buildings under public-private partnerships and an ongoing digitization project led by the foreign consultant McKenzie. The prime minister was unhappy with the FBR’s collaboration with McKenzie, which uncovered significant discrepancies in sales tax data and identified 4.9 million potential non-filers.
Additionally, there were concerns about Tiwana’s incomplete reporting to the prime minister, which delayed decision-making processes. Strained relations were further exacerbated by pending projects such as sales tax harmonization, simplified tax returns, IT equipment procurement under a World Bank project, and the focus on point of sale and track and trace systems.
Despite these challenges, Tiwana has overseen a 30 percent increase in tax collection over the last fiscal year, although the target fell short by Rs. 104 billion. If his retirement request is accepted, potential successors include Hamid Atiq Sarwar (IRS), Mukaram Jah Ansari, Faiz Chaddar (Customs), and Secretary Power Rashid Langrial (PAS). The new chairman will face the daunting task of managing the Prime Minister’s Office’s direct intervention, overseeing the McKenzie project, and achieving the Rs. 13 trillion tax collection target under IMF oversight.
