The collectorate of sales tax & federal excise, Lahore is to commence from Tuesday electronic processing of adjustment of input claims, called 'Adjustment Note Preparatory System (ANPS),' which will replace the manual system currently in practice.
The ANPS had been announced in the federal budget 2005-06 abolishing the old carry forward scheme for adjustment of input claims. Later, the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) issued SRO 666, dated June 30, 2005 for implementation of ANPS, whereby, manufactures could claim excess inputs by filing an adjustment note in the respective collectorate of sales tax and federal excise.
The claim is verified through a brief and simple process of scrutiny and adjustment advice is issued authenticating the excess inputs, which can be utilised by the registered person within the subsequent three tax periods. At present, adjustment notes are being received and processed manually. With effect from Tuesday, no manual adjustment note will be accepted from taxpayers.
The collectorate has also issued a public notice No 3/2005 to all trade bodies and chambers apprising taxpayers of the procedure involved in filing such claims, Nazim Saleem, collector sales tax and federal excise told Business Recorder on Monday.
A specially designated counter for taxpayers facilitation has also been set up on the first floor of the collectorate to assist taxpayers in using the software and educating them on the procedure prescribed for submitting the claims. The procedure is very simple and taxpayers-friendly.
The collector said initially ANPS is being launched in the Lahore collectorate as a pilot project and it will be available only for the manufacturing sector. However, at a later stage it will be introduced at the national level, he added. As a matter of fact, ANPS has replicated the Refund Claims Preparatory System (RCPS) and by and larger it is the same.
Giving logic behind the ANPS, the collector said so far the CBR is focusing on refunds and manufacturers under the old carry-forward system were making adjustment of input tax on their own and there was no check on them to validate their claims. Now the software designated specially for the purpose will validate their claims, and before doing adjustment, taxpayers will have to inform the collectorate concerned and get permission form it.
To educate the concerned public we had also given a detailed and comprehensive presentation on ANPS to the business community at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry a month back.