LHC to hear plea against FBR’s reward rules case on June 4

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court (LHC) will hear the writ petition against the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR’s) reward system for tax officials on June 4, 2026. The petitioner has claimed that the FBR has reportedly approved a significant enhancement in performance-based rewards for Inland Revenue Service (IRS) officers, raising the reward ceiling to 24 monthly salaries per financial year. The petitioner said that the austerity measures, announced by PM Shahbaz just weeks ago, include a four-day working week, a 50 percent work-from-home mandate, salary deductions for Cabinet members and parliamentarians, a 60 percent reduction in government transport expenditure, and a complete ban on official dinners, signaling a broader government push toward fiscal restraint. When contacted, the petitioner, Waheed Shahzad Butt, in two pending writ petitions before the LHC said that a representation has also been moved before the prime minister, the finance minister and FBR chairman while writ petitions have been fixed for hearing before LHC for June 4, 2026. The said tax adviser has already before the LHC in two writ petitions, directly challenging the legality of the FBR’s reward regime. In the said petitions, he argued that the Inland Revenue Reward Rules 2021 and the Customs Reward Rules 2012 are ultra vires the FBR Act 2007, that the Board-in-Council itself lacks proper legal standing because its members have not been appointed by the federal government as required, and that the forced peer-ranking system used to determine rewards is irrational and without legal basis, he claimed. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

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