The Sales Tax Collectorate (Enforcement) paid over Rs 26.4 billion as sales tax refund during the 2003-04 fiscal year as against Rs 20.3 billion last year, registering an increase of 30 percent.
The number of refund claims approved by the Collectorate during the period under review was 43 percent more than the last year.
The number of claims sanctioned during 2003-04 were 30,183 as compared to 21,082 claims approved last year.
Sales Tax (Enforcement) Collector Khwaja Tanveer Ahmed said on Saturday that the department issued refund cheques even on June 30, the last day of the outgoing financial year, contrary to the past practice when the refunds were stopped two months before the closing year for revenue collection constraints.
He said that there were clear instructions from the new Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Chairman that the refund should not be stopped under any circumstances, especially due to collection targets.
He said the Collectorate increased the staff for processing and finalising the refund claims and every officer was bound to sanction at least 70 refund claims in a day.
The refund section staff worked till late night and on Sundays and other close holidays, he added.
To a query, he said that the Collectorate had cleared all refund claims pertaining to Silver and Gold categories, while in other categories claims with incomplete documents were pending.