The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday disbursed payments to exporters/bond holders by redeeming bonds issued to refund claimants.

According to an announcement here on Thursday, the FBR disbursed payments to exporters/bond holders by redeeming bonds issued to refund claimants.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance & Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Wednesday met a group of leading businessmen representing various export sectors contributing nearly US $ 2 billion exports, to discuss and review progress on the issues pertaining to payment of Sales Tax refunds to exporters.

Chairman FBR Syed Shabbar Zaidi and Secretary Finance Naveed Kamran Baloch were also present in the meeting which was also attended by leading exporters from Lahore and Karachi, including Shahid Soorty, Musaadiq Zulqarnain, Fawad Anwer, Shahid Abdullah, Bashir Ali Mohammad, Rizwan Dewan, Asif Tata, Ahmed Ibrahim, Sameer Chinoy and Khurram Mukhtar.

Various proposals were put forward by exporters. The FBR was advised to work more aggressively on reforming and simplifying the processes through automation for early and prompt payment of sales tax refunds. He told businessmen he had already constituted a committee comprising officials from FBR and members of APTMA to simplify Form-H within the next few days. Businessmen were asked to nominate anyone who likes to become part of the committee as he wants to ensure a hassle-free submission of tax refund claims and their subsequent payment without any delay.

Businessmen thanked the adviser and his team in FBR for ensuring payment of Rs 32 billion sales tax refunds to exporters in the last couple of days. The adviser told businessmen that FBR is working very hard to facilitate exporters and another Rs 2 to 3 billion tax refunds would also be issued within the next couple of days.