The member Sales Tax, Central Board of Revenue (CBR), Shahid Ahmad has said the CBR would to launch a special value addition scheme, and those which go for value-addition would be exempted of the audit.
He stated this while addressing an appreciation certificate distribution ceremony among the top sales tax-payers of NWFP here on Saturday night. The function was held under the auspices of the Collectorate Sales Tax.
Shahid Ahmad said the registered retailers have certain apprehensions on the sales tax regime. He, however, said they would be briefed on modifying it.
He said the CBR was working on the simplification of the tax system, saying that the difficulties in the sales tax would be removed shortly, adding that sales tax is the major contributor to the national exchequer, while this year, the revenue is Rs 580 billion of which Rs 250 billion would be collected through general sales tax (GST).
Shahid Ahmad said before the federal budget for the current financial year there were four different ratios of the sales tax, which has now unified at 15 percent.
Terming the decision a revolutionary one, he said that 30,000 retailers have been exempted of sales tax in the country.
He said the Collectorate of Sales Tax in collaboration with the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) would hold seminars and workshops to brief business community about the sales tax regime.
He urged the industrialists to come forward and pinpoint their problems, saying: "Our approach is to hold dialogue and negotiate with tax payers.
He said the CBR is making efforts to take tax payers into confidence and as far as tax collecting machinery is concerned they have great role in the collection of the revenue, adding the officials of the Collectorate of Sales Tax would work for obtaining the confidence of tax payers.
Later, talking to newsmen, he said the levy of the GST through electricity bills in Fata/Pata should not be misunderstood, adding that being a registered GST payer Wapda has to pay GST in each invoice, therefore Wapda headquarters in Lahore has included it in their utility bill.
He, however, said that now after the directives of NWFP Governor Lieutenant General Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah (Retd), the CBR is going to re-examine the matter. He was confident that both Wapda and the sales tax department would resolve the matter amicably and it would be deleted from the electricity bills of the consumers in Fata/Pata.
Addressing the function, Collector Sales Tax, Peshawar, Ghulam Ahmad said the CBR appreciates and recognise the contribution of taxpayers towards national economy, adding: "This ceremony may be considered as token of CBR's pledge of honouring taxpayers as vision by its chairman."
"We have not made any distinction between small and large taxpayers, however, it is difficult to invite all taxpayers to pay our sincere appreciation", he said, and added that efforts have been made to select taxpayers from each category on the basis of their tax profile.
Regarding the matter of the refund, the collector informed the businessmen that during last financial year an amount of Rs 790 million has been disbursed against Rs 409 million, which shows an increase by 95 percent.
Ghulam Ahmad said the collectorate has taken every possible measure to facilitate its taxpayers, adding for tax education purposes, the collectorate conducted seminars on "sales tax matters" in collaboration with the Sarhad Chamber and Smeda.
He said the collectorate has also established "Nil Return Counters" at the sales tax offices throughout the province. This measure is aimed at facilitating registered persons to file "Nil" returns at the sales tax offices near their premises, he added.
The function was also addressed by the SCCI President Adeel Rauf, who, in his brief speech, called for the close relations between tax machinery, and expressed the hope that the holding of such events would help increase the national revenue.
Later, Member Sales Tax, CBR Shahid Ahmad, Collectore Sales Tax, Ghulam Ahmad and SCCI chief Adeel Rauf given away appreciation certificates to 62 top tax-payers of the province.