Federal Minister for Finance, Dr Hafeez Shaikh said Tuesday that The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has refunded as many Rs 31.3 billion from September 2010 to 18 April 2011 to taxpayers, showing an increase of 300 percent over the refunds of last year.
Talking to businessmen at a budget consultative meeting here the federal minister said that as compared to the refunds of Rs 9.6 billion during September 2009 to April 2010, the board refunded Rs 31.3 billion this year. He said that there has been 400 percent increase in the refund cheques issued by the FBR during this time as compared to last year. As many as 40,000 cheques were cleared by the board from September 2010 to 18 April 2011 as compared to just 9,830 during September 2009 to April 2010.
He said that the board has taken many measures to make the system transparent and has withdrawn the authority of issuing the cheques from the field officers."All the cheques are now issued, signed and delivered by the Chairman Office to make the process transparent and smooth," he added. The federal minister claimed that now the taxpayers have not to pay even a single penny to clear off their cheques from the board.