The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has paid Rs175 billion refunds during (July-April 15) 2019-20 against Rs107 billion paid in the same period of 2018-19, reflecting an increase of 64 percent.
This amount has been paid other than the refund of Rs45 billion issued to exporters under the Prime Minister's package.
Member Inland Revenue (Operations) Seema Shakil told a press conference at the FBR House Tuesday that the FBR had also asked 6,000 taxpayers to update their IBAN accounts for receiving income tax refunds directly into their accounts.
When asked, whether the refund issued was in line with the amount agreed with the IMF, the FBR Member Inland Revenue (Policy), Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar, stated the total refunds would be higher than indicated under the IMF programme.
Shakil stated that the FBR had directly transferred refunds of Rs45 billion to the bank accounts of the exporters out of total Rs70 billion, due under the prime minister's package for exporters.
The FBR Member Inland Revenue (Operations), Seema Shakil, informed that out of total prime minister's package of Rs100 billion, Rs30 billion relates to drawback of local taxes and levies (DLTL) to be paid by the Commerce Ministry, and Rs70 billion was related to the FBR's refund and rebate to the exporters.
She stated that the FBR had paid Rs175 billion refunds during (July-April 15) 2019-2020 against Rs107 billion paid in the same period of 2018-2019, reflecting an increase of 64 percent.
This amount has been paid other than the refund of Rs45 billion paid under the prime minister's package.
During (July-April 15) 2019-2020 period, the FBR has paid Rs96 billion sales tax refunds against Rs21 billion in 2018-2019, reflecting an extraordinary increase of 357 percent.
Out of this amount of Rs96 billion, the FBR has paid Rs52 billion under the FASTER system, and remaining amount of Rs44 billion was other than FASTER system.
Income tax refund payments stood at Rs69 billion during the period under review against Rs73 billion in the same period of 2018-2019, reflecting a decrease of five percent.
The FBR has paid Rs10 billion as Customs Duty rebate to the exporters during (July-April 15) 2019-2020 against Rs13 billion paid in the same period of 2018-2019, reflecting a decrease of 23 percent.
The FBR has not contacted any taxpayer for payment of refunds and issuing refunds on the basis of processing of the system, she said.
To a query about deferred refunds, FBR Member Inland Revenue (Policy) Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar stated that the FBR was also processing deferred refunds.
Seema Shakil disclosed that the FBR had also processed income tax refunds and even taxpayers were unaware that they were going to get income tax refunds directly into their bank accounts.
Therefore, these taxpayers have not updated their IBAN bank accounts as they are not aware that their refunds have been processed.
It has been decided to stop the practice of issuance of refund cheques forthwith from field formations, and directly credit the amount cheques of income tax refunds into the bank accounts of the taxpayers.
For this purpose, the IBAN bank accounts of the taxpayers are needed to be updated in their IRIS profiles, she added.
The income tax refunds have been divided into two categories/slabs.
The first category/slab of income tax refunds is between Rs1 million to Rs5 million.
An amount of Rs2.184 billion income tax refunds has been processed where IBAN has been updated and would be directly credited into the bank accounts of the taxpayers.
The second category/slab of income tax refunds ranges between Rs5 million to Rs50 million.
The FBR has finalised the amount of Rs8 billion, which would be released to the taxpayers.
An amount of Rs700 million involves, where the IBAN has not been updated.
Overall, an amount of around Rs13 billion is ready to be issued to around 10,000 taxpayers in both the categories of income tax refunds.
The FBR has requested around 6,000 taxpayers to update their IBAN for receiving income tax refunds of Rs1 billion.
These 6,000 persons have not updated their IBAN.
"The income tax refunds have been processed on first come first basis", the FBR member said.
Due to health and security concerns, the FBR Member Inland Revenue (Operations) advised the taxpayers and refund claimants to ensure to respond to the queries of FBR through email.
The FBR has asked certain queries to the taxpayers and the same should be responded through the email.
Through their email folders, the taxpayers should respond to the emails of the FBR for responding to various queries.
E-folders have of the IRIS has been enabled to update the information in the taxpayer's profiles.
She said that the refund claimants should immediately update their IBAN details for obtaining refunds without any further delay.
In this regard, the FBR has devised a centralised system of online payment of sales tax, FED and income tax refunds directly in the bank account of the taxpayers.
For this purpose, the FBR has requested the taxpayers to update their IRIS profile.
In the given bank account details area in the system, IBAN detail row is added wherein taxpayers are required to add their complete bank's IBAN number of same bank account whose details are already available in IRIS profile to receive sales tax, FED and income tax refund cheques.
The FBR has advised the taxpayers to do the needful as soon as possible to avail electronic transfer facility.
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