Refunds: FBR to facilitate five sectors' exporters in budget

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Thursday assured Abdul Razak Dawood, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce that the coming budget 2020-21 would facilitate exporters to expedite payment of sales tax refunds to the five leading export sectors including textile, leather, carpets, surgical and sports goods.
On Thursday, Advisor to the PM on Commerce visited the FBR House and held meeting with the FBR chairperson and other members.
According to the sources, the FBR and Razak Dawood also discussed facilitation measures for exporters in the next budget, issues of refunds and other Inland Revenue-related issues and problems being faced by exporters.
During the meeting, the Advisor to the PM on Commerce further directed the FBR to ensure speedy payment of pending duty drawback claims and rebate to the exporters.
The government would pay all pending admissible refunds to compensate the industrial sector in coming budget 2020-21, as promoting industries and giving incentives to the business community was an important step to leading the country forward.
The government would support the industrial sector and provide incentives.
The meeting was informed that in view of the current situation and future scenario, Pakistan's largest export sector will need assistance to improve the cash flow situation.
Tax authorities informed Dawood that the FBR had paid refunds of Rs15.119 billion during April 2020 against Rs6.661 billion in April 2019, reflecting an increase of Rs8.458 billion.
The FBR has paid refunds of Rs116.961 billion during July-April (2019-20) against Rs65.150 billion during the same period of last fiscal year, reflecting an increase of Rs51.811 billion.
Till last month, the FBR had sanctioned Rs56 billion sales tax refunds through the FASTER (Fully Automated Sales Tax e-Refund) system from July 2019 against the claimed amount of Rs59 billion, reflecting 95 percent payments.
The FBR member also shared that the FBR had devised a centralized system of online payment of customs duty drawback payments directly in the bank account of the exporters.
In the given bank account details area in the system IBAN detail row is added wherein members are required to add their complete bank's IBAN number of same bank account whose details are already available in WeBOC profile to receive custom duty drawback.