Islamabad:
The government has carried out the third review in the problem of Pakistan financed with the World Bank increases the income project and almost doubled the cost to $ 150 million to improve technology and also to obtain 179 vehicles, including bulletproof cars.
In terms of rupee, the cost increased from the original price of RS12.5 billion to RS40.8 billion, an increase of 226% in addition to giving two years of extension in their completion period.
The Central Development Work Party (CDWP) sent the project to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Thursday, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Planning on Friday.
The CDWP also extended the scheme of the laptop scheme of the Punjab main minister and increased its cost by 170% to RS27 billion. Pakistan’s investment project financing component (IPF) increases the value project of value of RS40.8 billion was sent to ECNEC for its greatest consideration.
The Ministry of Planning said the project will be financed through a loan from the World Bank.
The reviewed project focuses on modernizing the infrastructure of the Federal Income Board (FBR) through the obsolete hardware replacement, the implementation of a private cloud, updated software licenses and improved connectivity for field formations.
The project documents declared that an amount of RS2.2 billion has been assigned for the acquisition of 179 vehicles of different brands at a unit cost of RS12.5 million for digital application units. These include 15 bulletproof vehicles.
The Government had received a loan of $ 400 million in the name of Pakistan increases income. Of which $ 80 million had been assigned for hardware update. Now this component has increased to $ 150 million.
The Ministry declared that the requirements of the FBR have changed substantially as a result of the thrust of the entire organization to adopt solutions based on information and communication technology (ICT) for its central operations and the taxpayer’s facilitation, as provided in the FBR 2024 transformation route map.
The proposal for the conceptual authorization of the program was approved in 2019. ECNEC in 2020 approved the original project at a total cost of RS12.6 billion. Later, the first review of the project was approved by ECNEC at its meeting held in 2023 at a total cost of RS21.5 billion. Now, the cost is RS40.8 billion.
The project documents stressed that, based on the discussions and the understanding between the FBR and the world banks team during the memory of the Mission of the Middle Review Mission (MTR), the project has been restructured by including additional funds, therefore, the scope of the project has been reviewed.
There are certain changes in implementation strategies to achieve the objectives and objectives of the program. Additional funds will be used to meet the requirements.
These include piloting mobile tax facilitation services, initiatives to improve taxpayers compliance, establish the forum for technical consultations with the provincial tax authorities on tax harmonization, the development of personnel capacities, the gradation of the backup energy equipment and the control rooms and the control rooms.
The project has been restructured on the instruction of the prime minister and the discussions and the understanding between the FBR team and the World Bank during the average review mission.
The FBR had also made a consultation report for identifying external reasons.
The delay was due to the non-award-winning contract under the original project, the lack of adequate assignments of rupture of rupees as a main obstacle in the acquisition during the last three years and the directive of the Prime Minister to review the PC-I of Pakistan increases income to include components of the FBR transformation plan that falls within the project.
But the Ministry of Planning declared in his comments that these risks should have been treated in the project’s risk mitigation strategy and that it could have been administered by the project authority.
The Ministry of Planning recommended fixing responsibility for the inability to mitigate these risks to complete the project according to its approved scope and period of time.
The reviewed project also aims to implement a single sales return system, the development of data storage and BI tools, and the digital transformation of value chains, components that do not require any foreign loan.
The project supports the faceless evaluations, border technology updates and capabilities development through training, expert panels and IT improvements, together with the commercial proceedings automation frameworks and risk management, according to the Ministry of Planning.
The scheme of the Punjab CM portable computer worth RS27 billion was referred to ECNEC for its greater consideration. The project is funded by the Punjab government and will be completed in October of this year.
The project aims to distribute laptops to approximately 112,000 students currently enrolled in public sector educational institutions in PUNJAB with the final number subject to reviewed assignments.
Aimed at students in the Bs, MS, MBBS and Engineering programs, the selection will follow the criteria approved by the Steering Committee and will be based on verified data of the students of the respective institutions.
This initiative seeks to digitally empower students, improve access to educational resources, reduce socio -economic disparities and promote equal opportunities.
The objective of promoting collaboration with the local ICT industry, supporting economic growth and entrepreneurship, and investing in human capital by equipping students with the necessary skills to compete worldwide and regional.
To qualify for the laptop, students from universities and public sector colleges must obtain a minimum of 65% of grades in intermediate exams. For the medical and dental schools of the public sector, minimum of 80% of intermediate qualifications are required. Students should not remember any laptop from the PM portable computer program or no government laptops scheme.
