Details

Case

Transformation at the Federal Board of Revenue - Pakistan

Quratulain Haider, Abdul Jawwad, Anwar Khurshid

INDUSTRY : Revenue

AREA : HRM/OB

ORGANIZATION : Federal Board Of Revenue (FBR)

LENGTH : 43

LUMS No : 05-753-2012-1

PUBLICATION YEAR : 2012

KEYWORDS:

Federal Board of Revenue,Transformation,Pakistan,Change Management,Strategy,FBR,Operations,Tax Administration

DESCRIPTION:

This case describes the transformation process at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Pakistan a public sector organisation. The tax administration in Pakistan had inherent weaknesses that required tax reforms in order to expand the tax base, reduce taxes, increase voluntary compliance, facilitate taxpayers and change the image of FBR in the society. In order to do this, Tax Administration Reforms Project (TARP) was initiated by the Federal Government of Pakistan with funding from the World Bank (WB) in July 2001.Several achievements were made towards the reforms of tax administration, including the successful run of several pilot projects, clearing the backlog of massive litigation and audit objections of taxpayers, settlement of bank guarantees, broadening of tax base, increase in filing of tax returns, and reduction in corruption rating of FBR. However, momentous challenges still lay ahead including; increased uncertainty and discontentment in FBR employees about their future prospects and career progression in the organisation, lack of mutual coordination resulting in inefficiencies and delays in critical business processes, adjustment to the open work environment, and taxpayers continued to pay substantially less than their due share due to lack of strong deterrence.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1) To explore the challenge of large scale change in a complex public sector organisation. 2) To assess the implications of tax reforms on the organisational effectiveness of FBR. 3) To understand the dynamics of organisational change and the inter-relationship of varous aspects of the organisation in a transformation effort. 4) To illustrate how organizational structure and employee practices can facilitate or hold back the process of enabling customers for tax return and serving their needs for voluntary compliance. 5) To appreciate the multifarious nature of change along with the constraints faced in a public sector organisation.

SUBJECTS COVERED:

Human Resource Management, Organizational Behaviour, Managing Change, Managing Public Sector Organisations, Strategic Management