The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to refer all deferred amounts of refund claims to respective Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) for clearing after due diligence, said sources.

They said the exporters are complaining about deferring of amounts against their refund claims filed for the month of September. A clarification has been made by the respective department and advised them to stop showing partial deferred amounts in the next month's claim.

It may be noted that the cell constituted to deal with export-oriented sectors has started visiting the respective associations to respond to the queries. Also, the concerned staff is advising the accounts and tax departments of export-oriented units as to how should they fill annexure-H to claim their refunds.

The departmental sources said efforts are being made to minimize human interface and all claims are being processed and cleared online. However, those showing deferred amounts would be verified by the respective RTOs.

Sources said surety bonds worth Rs30 been have been converted into refunds payment orders and released to the exporters. Remaining claims would also be processed accordingly; they said and added that all the banks have been advised to clear the refund claims.

However, the exporters are clueless about the status of deferred amounts, saying that when they asked about it from the relevant offices, they advised to seek blessing of God for their earlier release.