FBR to assess IRS officials’ capabilities on 17th

The Federal Board of Revenue plans to hold its training-needs assessment for Inland Revenue officers in Lahore on November 17, after completing exercises in Islamabad and Karachi. Business Recorder reported that the process covers sales-tax and income-tax capabilities of officers in Grade-17 and above.

FBR officials told the newspaper that no written examination took place and rejected figures circulating online about how many officers were deemed capable of handling cases independently. The disputed report has prompted questions about the assessment’s legal basis, methodology, use of artificial intelligence and possible effects on officers’ duties; the extent of AI involvement is not confirmed. The FBR official described the exercise as a routine way to identify training requirements, not a test of officers’ competence.