The Large Taxpayer Unit, Karachi has expressed serious concern over the slow processing of sales tax refund claims filed by leading corporate entities due to verification by outdated version of Sales Tax Automated Refund Repository (Starr) computer system.
Sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday that the LTU, Karachi has submitted a report, on 'upgradation of Starr system' to the FBR Member Sales Tax. According to the LTU, Karachi, the Starr system used for processing big companies claims is outdated. The information of leading units available with the Starr has not been updated regularly which has created hurdles in processing of claims.
The LTU, Karachi was of the view that the processing forms as well as reports are also very old. Since refund claimants at LTU Karachi are big companies and their claims consist of thousands of invoices, its verification becomes impossible in view of system inability to handle heavy quantum of data.
The claims, loaded into the Starr on existing receiving form, either get hanged, whereas uploading is extremely slow. As a result, the processing is done in pieces/parts and one claim is processed in days, the sources said.
There is no provision of computer/Starr-based show cause notices in the existing forms of refund. Resultantly, the LTU, Karachi has been forced to issue show cause notices to the big companies and leading entities, manually.
The issuance of manual notices in the presence of a computerised system seems to be unjustified.
There is no linkage between the data of customs clearance from Pakistan Customs Computerized System (PACCS) and Starr system. It is not possible for the LTU, Karachi to carryout verification of import clearance record, which is necessary for the processing of refund claims.
The LTU, Karachi has requested the Board to immediately depute a Starr team comprising experts at the DBA, LTU, Karachi to update the system for speedy processing of claims.