ST refunds, other issues facing APTMA members: Chief commissioner LTO Lahore vows remedial action

LAHORE: Syed Mahmood Hussain Jafri, Chief Commissioner Large Tax Office (LTO) Lahore, has assured the APTMA members of solving the textile industry issues related to sales tax refunds, deferred claims, adjustment of pending refunds and liabilities and exemption certificates on priority.

He was speaking to the APTMA members during his visit to APTMA North office on Tuesday. He was accompanied by Dr Ali Adnan Zaidi, Commissioner LTO Lahore.

Chairman APTMA North Kamran Arshad and Secretary General Raza Baqir welcomed him on the occasion.

The chief commissioner LTO said the Federal Board of Revenue has established the LTOs to address the issues of large taxpayers while acknowledging their roles in revenue generation.

He appreciated APTMA role in export and employment enhancement. He said the FBR has paid Rs 10 billion refunds since July 2023, including the deferred ones. However, he sought a list of APTMA member not able to receive refunds so far for expedite processing.

Replying to the suggestion that the LTO should allow tax adjustment, he said the FBR is already processing inter-tax adjustments to facilitate the taxpayers.

According to him, the problem being faced by the APTMA members due to staff shortage would be addressed soon. He also sought proposals to improve sales tax refund system.

Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Chairman APTMA North Kamran Arshad said tax refunds of a large number of taxpayers are pending with the LTO, causing financial crunch for already crisis-driven textile industry.

He further pointed out that a huge amount of sales tax claims is deferred by the FASTER system, which requires normal processing by the tax authorities. These deferred claims are needed to be processed immediately as funds worth millions of rupees of every member mill are stuck up, he added.

He urged the visiting chief commissioner to set up a dedicated cell for processing of all deferred cases with the direction of no pendency for more than one month. In case of staff shortage, he proposed that at least 80% of the claimed amount may be sanctioned provisionally to the corporate sector against undertaking.

Also, he mentioned that the APTMA member mills are facing delay in issuance of exemption certificates and urged the visiting authorities expedite it for the corporate units.

APTMA members including Anjum Zafar, Naveed Gulzar and others highlighted that all the buyers and suppliers of the suspected units are included in so-called investigations on detection of any case of tax fraud, which causes harassment to the genuine tax payers as well.

He said not all the registered persons having business transactions with the suspected units be summoned merely on suspicion, especially where buying or selling was carried out after confirmation from the active taxpayer list besides complying with the procedures and requirements of Sales Tax law. He proposed to involve APTMA in all such inquiries for a meaningful inquiry.

In the end, Secretary General APTMA Raza Baqir presented a vote of thanks to the visiting chief commissioner LTO and expressed the hope that mutual interaction will continue in future as well.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023