Local sales tax collectorate has processed refund claims of Rs 1285 million for the financial year ended June 30, 2009. Collector Sales Tax, Faisalabad, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Kazmi said this in a meeting with leading textile exporters at Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) on Thursday.
He said that the government has geared up its efforts to boost the national exports and the sales tax department is doing its best to release all pending sales tax refund claims of textile exporters within the mandatory period of 120 days. He said that it was for the first time that refund cases were processed within time limit to facilitate the exporters at Faisalabad collectorate. "Most of the old pending refund cases have also been resolved, he added.
He asked the exporters to bring any problem they are facing to him and that it would be resolved amicably. He said that no recovery target was set by the government in the outgoing fiscal regarding the collection of sales tax and it was in this context that despite of issuing show cause notices and lock ups, we were not very harsh on tax payers.
Regarding black listing of suppliers, the collector said that the department would provide necessary information to the association so that it could be circulated among the members for their convenience. He assured the exporters that all the refund claims were treated on same parameters as set by the government. He further said that all refund claims were released on first come first serve basis in the most fair and transparent manner.
On the issue of pending claims he said that pending cases were being cleared expeditiously and in this connection refund claims of Rs 500 million were paid in last four months of financial year 2007-08 while refunds amounting Rs 1200 million were paid during 2008-09.
Regarding post refund audit, collector said that the sales tax department has to follow the law but generally we avoid filling appeals in such cases. He said that there is very low number of pending federal excise duty refund claims and he will make sure to clear all such cases within a month.
Earlier Chairman, Pakistan Textile Exporters Association, Muhammad Yousaf welcomed the collector and explained in detail the sales tax refund hurdles faced by textile exporters. Pinpointing the main problems he said that show cause notices were being issued to exporters and they were being asked to deposit the refund obtained against black-listing of their suppliers 4-5 years ago. This was causing harassment to exporters without their fault. He requested the collector about speedy deposal of regular sales tax claims.
The Chairman said that the claims of Federal Excise Duty are still pending and requested for expedite disposal of these cases. He also proposed the Collector for fixation of time limit for completion of investigative audit. The chairman urged an easy access to the concerned staff to expeditiously settle and sort out day to day problems. Later he presented souvenirs to collector and his team members.