Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi said on Tuesday that due to health reasons he is not in a position to perform his duties well.

Setting aside reports of his resignation earlier, the FBR chairman, in an interview, said “I have not tendered resignation from the post of FBR chairman post. At the moment I cannot perform my duty due to ill health.”

There were earlier reports that Shabbar Zaidi had been again proceeding on leave due to medical reasons. This would be the second time in one month when the FBR chairman was going on leave.

Earlier, Zaidi went on two-week medical leave which ended on January 17.

 There were reports that policy-level differences have emerged among the top policy-makers of the economic team after which the FBR chairman preferred to get 15-day leave.

Earlier this month, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh had indicated that the federal government may change the FBR chairman if he did not recover soon.

Speculations had been rife about Zaidi’s resignation after it was reported that he was on an indefinite leave from official duties on grounds of poor health.