The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has temporarily stopped electronic processing of a number of sales tax refund cases through the Sales Tax Automated Refund Repository Computer System'' (STARR) and cases are referred to Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) for manual processing. Sources said that the STARR was a computer program to verify data, including invoices before issuance of sales tax refunds.
Because of some technical and legal issues in the system, refund payment orders (RPOs) were not being generated electronically in many cases. Some sales tax notifications or SROs are not compatible with the STARR system. Similarly, if the main server of STARR is not working for few hours at the FBR House, creating problems in the electronic linkage between the Board and regional offices.
At present, the STARR system is not generating electronic RPOs in certain cases and the same is being done through the manual system. When an application is filed for refund electronically, the system starts computerised verification of invoices. However, the system is now referring genuine cases for manual processing. In this regard, the system generates an email to the applicant that the case was rejected through STARR and the same case should be processed manually.
The applicant would inform the RTO concerned about the electronic rejection of the case. In such cases, processing of applications has also been done manually. The verification of invoices and all other processes has been done manually. Thus, the RPO is also being generated through the manual system. As soon as problems in the STARR system are resolved, the system will again become functional.