A much-publicised automation drive of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would be quashed as the newly launched Exception Management System (XMS), which was developed by the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (Pral), has failed to produce desired results, Business Recorder learnt on Friday. According to sources, the board has sent a letter CIR/IPD/2010-11 to the Pral, seeking its immediate response towards identifying causes of XMS failure.
They further said the revenue body is enraged as the Pral adopted unmindful approaches to develop XMS, which dragged the automation drive of the board in a gloomy state. To a question, they said that although the system has pointed out exceptions, these could not be viewed by the concerned deputy commissioner unless the commissioner assigns these exceptions/discrepancies to them on monthly basis.
They said the system is unable to assign exceptions/discrepancies to the concerned officers as per their jurisdiction, despite having updated data regarding the jurisdiction. Furthermore, they said the system is presently assigning the user IDs and password on the basis of the officials' names, which should have been done in accordance with their respective charge such as DCIR-03, Audit Division I, LTU, Karachi, etc.
Sources said the system, which was launched to deal with issues related to direct and indirect taxes at the same time, is currently working in a limited mode as it generates exceptions/discrepancies keeping in view the sales tax side perspective only, which needs to be expanded to income tax perspective as well.
They said the system, which should have raised objections in case of income tax and sales tax mismatch, is only considering unlawful adjustment of input as discrepancies. They said the aims of automation drive would be nullified, if the authority concerned did not take remedial measures to ensure maximum output from XMS. Moreover, they said the Pral has also been recommended to add more information pertaining to income tax returns and sales tax declaration for the relevant period to avoid such errors in future and added that these suggestions should be implemented on immediate basis to ensure optimal utilisation of the XMS.