Delay in refund of sales tax: NWFP export down by $300 million

The export from NWFP has been dropped by 300 million dollars due to delay in payment of Sales Tax refund cases and certain government taxation measures, said President of SCCI Haji Muhammad Asif. The business community of NWFP was actively participating in rebuilding of Afghanistan and facing tremendous difficulties in sales tax refund cases.
Due to delay in payment of sales tax refund cases, the export from NWFP has dropped by 300 million US dollars he stated this while addressing a meeting of the members of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI). Director General Regional Tax Office NWFP Abida Ali, Najibur Rehman Abbasi Collector Sales Tax, Iftikhar Ahmed Commissioner Income Tax and Qaisar Khan Commissioner Sales Tax, Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour attended the meeting.
The decline in the export, he said increased problems of the business community of the NWFP. He urged the tax collectors to expedite decisions on the cases of sales tax refund.
He said there was no doubt in it that reforms by the Federal Board of Revenue have made the taxation system business friendly, simplified the taxation procedure and creating awareness among the traders about taxes. The reforms of the FBR have restored confidence of the traders in taxation policy and it was really playing the role of facilitator, Asif added.
The SCCI thankful to Chairman FBR Abdullah Yusaf for rescinding section 25, 25A, 37 and 38 abolishing the powers of Director General Intelligence and Investigation with regard to checking documents of the trading concerns and search of their offices.
Haji Muhammad Asif said that tax payers were facing problems in e-filing of sales tax return especially with regard to obtaining ID and Pin Code which was not possible without the facility of DSL. He agreed that the system of income tax and sales tax refund has improved however, still various cases of refund were pending due to shifting to new system.
He suggested that to address this problem a committee of the SCCI should be formed. He said, small traders should be exempted from income tax and sales tax. Moreover, he suggested that Returns Counters should be opened two months before the deadline for submission of returns.
The President of SCCI also demanded issuance of Tax Credit Notification for the fiscal year 2006, which was pending since June 2007. Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, Zahid Shinwari, Sharafat Ali Mubarak, Nooruddin F Daud and others spoke on the occasion and highlighted thetax related problems.