SIALKOT: The inordinate delay in the payments of thousands of the duty drawback, sales tax and income tax refund claims of Sialkot exporters has resulted in severe liquidity crunch for exporters and has badly affected industrial and export activities in Sialkot.
Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) President Dr Sarfraz Bashir stated this while talking Customs Today here. He said that the Sialkot’s export-oriented cottage industries had been suffering from great financial crisis mainly due to inordinate delay in clearance of all refund claims.
He urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Finance Ministry officers to utilize their complete influence for ensuring early clearance of all the above-mentioned cases in a bid to pull the Sialkot industry out of the persisting crisis.
The SCCI head also urged the FBR to provide 10 percent special rebate to Sialkot exporters for the coming three months in a bid to give financial relief to the perturbed exporters, besides, removing the bad impacts from the Sialkot industry.
He also demanded the clear policy and mechanism for the collection of sales tax and income tax in the country.
He feared that the further delay in the clearance of these refund claims could be resulted in decline in exports from Sialkot due to which the Sialkot exporters could not reap benefits of the GSP Plus status so far.
