The indigenously devised Risk-based Refund Analysis System would soon be launched for speedy payment of sales tax refunds to the exporters. Sources said on Thursday that the CBR Chairman M. Abdullah Yusuf highly appreciated the accuracy of the RRAS and e-filing of sales tax returns during the quarterly conference of collectors of sales tax and federal excise.
Sources said that the newly developed system has been successfully tested at Faisalabad and Lahore and it would soon be replicated at other collectorates of sales tax.
The system performs risk-based analysis of exporters profiles, eliminating the interference of tax officials.
The RRAS would not permit the tax officials to issue rulings in contrary to the findings of the system, sources said.
The refund analysis system would generate show cause notice on detection of a fake claim and an opportunity would be given to the exporter to justify the claim.
The CBR chairman, who is also Secretary General, Revenue Division, has called upon the sales tax collectors to pay utmost attention for early disposal of all pending refund claims and dedicate the new financial year for consolidation, cleaning up the backlog and implementation of new automated system.
"The issue of refunds should not be allowed to linger on any more. Pay whatever is payable and reject the fake claims and have the slate clean," the chairman said and added, "After having done that we will have enough time to think, reorganise our system and streamline procedures for the expansion of tax base and increasing the volume of taxes."
In this connection, a detailed presentation on multimedia was given on RRAS. This software, containing end-to-end solution, has been developed by Shafqat Mehmood, Collector, Faisalabad.
The chairman appreciated this discretion-free efficient system for the processing of refunds. Dr Zubair Yusfani gave details of the implementation status of e-filing of ST returns. He said that the system has already been initiated in some units and will be replicated throughout the country by the end of 2006.
CBR Chairman said that each and every collector must know the existing revenue potential of the areas under their respective jurisdictions.
At present, our tax collection is no where near to the existing potential particularly in the industrial sector, he added. We need to carefully and objectively analyse the potential revenue spinners like automobile, telecom etc and fix the targets accordingly.
The Chairman opined that a large number of potential taxpayers were still out of the tax net. Information available with different institutions can be utilised to bring them into tax net.
'We have to expand our tax base and consequently enhance the tax-to-GDP ratio which at present is not up to the desired level', he added. He lauded the performance of collectorates in 2005-2006 during which all tax collection targets were surpassed. He informed the Collectorates that their performance has been recognised and appreciated at the highest level. Referring to the revenue collection target of Rs 835 billion for current financial year, the chairman said that although it was challenging but expressed the confidence that it will not only be achieved but also surpass. The conference reviewed, in detail, the implementation status of the new budgetary measures and noted with satisfaction that a considerable progress has been made to this effect.
Other agenda items came under discussion were desk audit results of sectors paying sales tax on value addition such as commercial importers and steel sector, sales tax payment reconciliation with AGPR on government procurements etc.
The conference was also updated on availability of records relating to audit paras, receipts of invoice summary and exercise regarding weeding out old record while shifting to Regional Tax Offices (RTOs). During the conference, Mukarram Jah Ansari briefly outlined the Sales Tax Management System and gave a road map of IT for RTOs.
CBR Member Legal Mumtaz Ahmed, in his presentation, briefed the conference about the present status of cases filed with FTO and at other legal fora and asked the collectors to strengthen their representations covering all the legal lacunas.
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