Traders urge government to clear refund claims

The business community, exporters and industrialists of the Southern Punjab have urged upon the government to pay their income tax, GST refunds immediately and the fate of deferred refund claims must be decided once and for all which are pending since 2003 and mostly belong to the small and medium enterprises from Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rahimyar Khan, Khanewal, Muzaffargarh.
President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi pointed out that the Federal Board of Revenue has never entertained the deferred claims due to inherent faults filed manually by small units from the cities other than Lahore in 2003.
"The value-added exporters from Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Khanewal Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Sialkot are not satisfied with the FBR because of the phenomenon of deferred claims," Fareed said. It may be noted that the finance ministry is likely to make sales tax refund payments to exporters, having refund payment orders (RPOs) until 30th of June 2016, in the first week of next month. The government had made a payment of Rs 21 billion on August 24, 2016, against the RPOs issued until April 2016. Chairman of All Pakistan Bed Sheet & Upholstry Manufacturers Association (APBUMA) Khawaja Muhammad Younas, when contacted, agreed with the impression carried by other exporters in the town, saying that around 70 percent of the deferred claims are non-verifiable, the fate of which is needed to be addressed as early as possible. He said the FBR officials have informed the industry that the actual figure of stuck-up refunds in February 2016 was Rs 110 billion against the industry's claim of Rs 200 billion. "Out of Rs 110 billion, the government had cleared Rs 23 billion stuck-up claims until 30th of June in the month of August," he said.
"The refund claims may again have reached Rs 100 billion from the July till date, out of which some Rs 70 billion are incomplete in terms of paper work." Shah said majority of the exporters, especially in Multan, have come out of the circular debt of refunds as the government has exempted the value-added exports from sales tax since the start of new fiscal year, with imposition of one percent non-refundable tax on packing material.