LAHORE: Chief Commissioner Large Taxpayer Office (LTO) Lahore Ahmad Shuja Khan has assured members of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) Punjab of resolving their tax issues, including payment of refund claims, on priority.
He was addressing the Aptma Punjab members during his visit to the Association office at Lahore on Friday.
Chairman Aptma Abdul Rahim Nasir, Chairman Northern Zone Hamid Zaman, Senior Vice-Chairman Kamran Arshad, Treasurer Asad Shafi, Secretary General Raza Baqir and a large number of leading textile mills owners and representatives attended the meeting.
With regard to payment of refunds, chief commissioner said the FASTER plus is processing refunds in 48 hours while refund process has been improved in general. He further pointed out that FASTER plus is efficiently processing refunds electronically up to 80 percent without human involvement. Remaining 20 percent may have some issues of filing which after resolution shall also be processed on fast track, he added.
The chief commissioner said the LTO was processing all deferred cases to ensure that no deferred claim remains pending indefinitely. Efforts are being made to process sales tax claims to avoid deferment of huge amounts by the FASTER system, he added.
He offered Aptma to sit with LTO with specific details of pending deferred and current claims to expedite the process.
He said the issuance of exemption certificates is already automated and the process would be expedited to avoid undue delays, if any, faced by member mills of Aptma Punjab.
He agreed that undue inclusion of all buyers and suppliers of the suspected units in investigations on detection of any case of tax fraud may cause harassment to genuine tax payers. It would be avoided to summon all registered persons in cases especially where buying and selling was done after confirmation of being on ATL of FBR and duly complying with the procedures and requirements of Sales Tax law, he assured and appreciated the suggestion to associate Aptma in meaningful inquiry in all such matters.
According to him, the FBR accords importance to taxation matter of exporters and believes in speedy refunds of their claims which is actually the investment of exporters.
He said the FBR is also working to develop a new software which will eliminate flying / bogus invoices.
He said that the LTO was playing its due role in policy making by communicating the matters and issues related to exporters by sending to the Board for implementation thereof.
Responding to the question of raising demand on the issue of goods to unregistered persons, chief commissioner agreed that such demands may not be issued in case of supply of basic inputs like yarn, unprocessed fabric which have no use other than manufacturing. He agreed to look into the issue and save the industry from such unnecessary demands.
Speaking on the occasion, Rahim Nasir, Chairman APptma, expressed his deep gratitude to chief commissioner LTO for his assurance of early resolution of tax relating issues of the industry.
He hoped that this interaction would continue in future as well in the larger interest of the country’s exports, employment and investment.
He informed the gathering that textile exports have performed remarkably well during the current year by registering growth of 26 percent. He added that textile exports would exceed $ 21 billion this year as against the export of $ 15 billion last year.
Hamid Zaman, Chairman Northern Zone, while welcoming the chief commissioner highlighted various tax-related issues faced by the textile manufacturers and retailers.
Responding to the difficulties faced by Tier 1 retailers, Chief Commissioner invited Aptma and Retailers Association to sit with LTO to reach a consensus resolution of all problems.
At the end of the meeting, Kamran Arshad thanked the chief commissioner for visiting Aptma and expressing his resolve and commitment to amicably settle all issues.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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