PCMA for immediate release of sales tax refunds

Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA) has complained that billions of rupees of chemical manufacturers are stuck up in sales tax refunds, which are pending till date despite government promises for speedy payment.
The Association's Secretary General Iqbal Kidwai in a statement on Thursday said that the long delay in sales tax refund had resulted into higher borrowing by private sector from the commercial bank that is pushing input costs up making the national exports uncompetitive in the global market.
Chemical industries are facing a severe liquidity crisis due to the prevailing situation, which needs immediate remedy from the concerned authorities. He said the chemical industry is endeavouring to achieve competitiveness through imports substitution and implementing best practices to bring the local chemical units at par with the world standards.
"We are engaged in implementation of the responsible care programme to enable the local chemical industry become respectable member of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA)", he said adding that after completing a successful implementation of the responsible care program ICCA had adopted the PCMA as its member. But, he said the long delay of sales tax refund cases was pushing the industry into financial crunch, which may stop the chemical companies to make further investment in responsible care programme as well.
He said that Federal Board of Revenue had promised to form a committee to review deferred refund cases for payment with assurance that FBR would issue refunds against approved refund payment orders (RPOs) at the earliest possible. But, he lamented that no progress on this decision has taken place so far at the FBR end.
He said that several refunds were pending on technical grounds which needed rectification at claimant level. He urged the FBR authorities to provide access to FBR system so as enable the PCMA members to check their deferred claims of last five years.
He also called for the taxpayers' education and requested the FBR's dedicated department for taxpayers' awareness to hold exclusive training sessions with PCMA members on the precautionary measures to avoid claims going into deferred.
He stressed the need for processing all pending applications of the sales tax refunds on priority basis and to devise a speedy mechanism for future processing in consultation with the stakeholders.