Professionals being hired to run tax policy office

The Ministry of Finance is inducting six professionals from the market to operationalise the Tax Policy Office (TPO), which will directly report to the finance minister in line with commitments made with the IMF under the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The ministry on Monday sought applications for the positions — one for the director general of TPO and five directors having different expertise like economic analysis, business taxation, personal taxation, international taxation and direct/indirect taxation. All of them would be hired at Special Professional Pay Scales (SPPS). The DG will get SPPS-1 while the directors will be hired on SPPS-II. Last April, the prime minister had approved the revised remuneration structure for four grades of SPPS, involving an all-inclusive package of Rs2 million for SPPS-1, up to Rs1.5m for SPPS-II, up to Rs1m for SPPS-III, and up to Rs500,000 per month for SPPS-IV.