The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to establish a dedicated centre at Regional Tax Office (RTO) Karachi to clear backlog of pending refunds of Karachi-based businessmen. Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that the issue of pending sales tax refunds was discussed during a meeting on the refund issues. The FBR has taken some decisions to expedite clearance of pending refunds' claims.
Firstly, a dedicated centre, to be manned by people of established integrity, is to be established at the RTO, Karachi. The sole responsibility of this centre will be to expeditiously liquidate the pendency position of sales tax refunds. Secondly, FBR Member (Domestic Operations North) shall liquidate the small scale refunds pendency especially at Lahore and Faisalabad by the end of December, 2010. Thirdly, Refund Rules would be amended, which would help the tax department to issue refunds up to Rs 25,000.
During the meeting, Dr Amna Khalifa, DG (SP&S) presented the backlog position under the expeditious refund system (ERS). Tax authorities expressed their dissatisfaction over the excessive pendency of the refund cases especially the cases involving petty amounts up to Rs 50,000. The remedial proposals were discussed in detail and it was decided that necessary amendments to the Refund Rules may be proposed enabling the tax authorities to issue refunds up to Rs 25,000 in a more simplified and expeditious manner.