In a large-scale reshuffle, thousands of employees of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) across the country have been transferred to various departments as the board aims to meet its revenue targets for the new fiscal year, it emerged on Saturday.

According to office orders issued by the FBR on Friday, as many as 2,154 employees of BPS-9 to BPS-16 have been shuffled in different cities.

In Karachi, 726 officials of grades 9-14, working in the Inland Revenue Department, have been transferred. In Lahore, 565 employees of grades 9-15 have been transferred, while in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 357 officials of grades 9-15 have been shuffled.

Moreover, more than 500 officers and officials working in grades 9-16 in Regional Tax Offices of Abbottabad, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Hyderabad, Sialkot, Sargodha, Sukkur, Peshawar, Sahiwal, Multan and Quetta have also been transferred.

Talking to DawnNewsTV, FBR Member Inland Revenue (IR) Policy Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar pointed to two major reasons behind the mass transfers and posting. He said the FBR wanted its employees who have been working in certain offices for a considerable period to gain the experience of working at other locations and in other jobs.

Secondly, he said, the move is aimed at "breaking the connivance" between lower-level staff members and taxpayers in the areas where they are stationed.

The reshuffle comes as the government has set an ambitious revenue collection target of Rs5.5 trillion for the fiscal year that began on July 1.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly criticised FBR's performance since assuming office in August last year, saying without reforms in the board, the government will not be able to efficiently collect taxes. On one occasion, he even threatened to "create a new FBR" if the existing revenue collection body could not be reformed.