Refund rules relaxed for exporters of zero-rated sectors

Exporters of zero-rated sectors would not be required to submit the shipping document, ie, the mate receipt, for processing of pending sales tax refund cases, where actual export of goods took place up to September 30, 2005 under SRO.992(I)/2005.
In this connection, the CBR has issued instructions to all collectors of sales tax on Monday. Sources told Business Recorder, the textiles ministry has taken up clearance of past refund cases of zero-rated sectors with the CBR board. The ministry has informed the CBR certain exporters of zero-rated sectors were facing hardships in obtaining refund of past cases. These units exported goods up to September 30, but the "mate receipt" contained dates of October 2005.
Collectors were not processing such cases, but exporters contested that the mate receipt were timely submitted, whereas, dates mentioned on them were of October.
Keeping in view the genuine hardship of exporters, the CBR has relaxed the condition of "mate receipt" for zero-rated sectors. According to the CBR instructions, "the date on which goods were presented to ports for examination to determine if goods were exported or not up to September 30, 2005 may be accepted in lieu of mate receipt date".
As per the above mentioned notification, no registered person engaged in the export of textiles articles, leather products, carpets, surgical goods and sports goods could claim refund on stocks of goods acquired up to June 5, 2005 if not consumed and subsequently exported up to September 30, 2005.
The board had notified September 30 as cutoff date for export of goods zero-rated in budget (2005-06) for the purpose of claiming refund. The CBR will not pay refund to exporters, who obtained refunds on stocks exported after September 30, 2005.
Sources said, the CBR initially declared mate-receipts as a primary document for the payment of sales tax refund to exporters of five sectors which were zero-rated in budget 2005-06.
The mate receipt is an acknowledgement that the ship-owner has received goods under the condition stated therein. It could be termed as a declaration issued by an officer of a vessel stating that certain goods have been received on board his vessel. The mate receipt is in fact an acknowledgement of cargo signed by a mate of the vessel.
Officials said the waiver of the mate receipt would be instrumental in processing of pending refund cases.