A staggering amount of around Rs 40 billion in sales tax refunds is pending disbursement to the disenchantment of the taxpayers. Muhammad Ibrahim Vighio, Collector of Sales Tax Refunds Collectorate, Karachi, when approached for comments, did not allow this reporter to enter the premises of the Sales Tax Collectorate.
"Don't get involved in the matter of the pending sales tax refund cases of the department, " was his curt reaction. He refused to talk on the subject, saying that the figure of the amount of pending refunds mentioned was not correct, but did not give the correct amount of the pending claims.
When pressed to give the actual amount of payments made so far, he avoided to answer the question, and told this reporter not to visit the Collectorate again--in this connection. "I will not provide actual pending refunds figures to newspapers because if the same are published, a new controversy between taxpayers and tax officials would be created ", Ibrahim said.
He said: "I am not interested in informing you about departmental matters and it is my request not to publish any news about pending refunds cases".
It may be mentioned that a huge number of sales tax refund claims are pending for reasons best known to the Collectorate. Around Rs 18.45 billion has been debited on account of fresh sales tax refund claims during the current fiscal year, while about Rs 20.91 billion is stuck up. It appears that the clearance process is rather slow and negligible, resulting in abnormal increase in the number of claims.