About 40% officers of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) considered for promotion have been placed on the performance watch list due to their competency and integrity issues while suspension cases have tripled over the past two years, said the tax authorities. In a background briefing, the tax authorities said that financial integrity was a main factor in promotions. According to the statistics shared by the FBR, the ratio of officers placed on the performance watch list rose sharply between 2023 and 2025.
It increased from about 2% in 2023 to about 40% in 2025. They attributed the jump to a host of measures introduced by FBR Chairman Rashid Langrial after assuming office two years ago. The authorities said that because of those measures and the additional scrutiny, the share of officers with low integrity ratings given on the basis of internal assessments, in the critical Inland Revenue positions fell from 74% in July 2023 to 11% by June 2026.
They claimed that 89% of those posts "are now being held by high-rated officers". In the Customs, the share of low-rated officers in critical posts fell from 71% in January 2023 to 9% in June 2026. FBR officials noted that the decline continued and intensified since the current FBR chairman took the reins in August 2024, they added.
Nepotism culture is also being discouraged and the authorities claimed that not even a single officer had been posted on the recommendation of some politician or bureaucrat and all such postings were made on the basis of professional qualification, integrity and competency. Since August 2024, the tax authority has carried out one of the most sustained self-accountability drives in its recent history, said the authorities. FBR figures showed that disciplinary proceedings resulting in major penalties against the staff had nearly doubled, rising from 38 cases in FY 2023-24 to 75 cases in FY 2025-26.
They said that suspensions of Inland Revenue Service (IRS) and Customs officers in grades BS-16 to BS-21 followed a similar trend, climbing from 33 in FY24 to 105 in FY26, roughly triple the pre-reform baseline. The FBR has remained under scrutiny of various quarters and the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has also issued judgements in recent days, pointing to administrative, operational and policy flaws. During the background briefing, the tax authorities said that as of April 2026, 32 officers were…
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