ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Spokesman Dr Muhammad Iqbal has said that efforts were being made to clear the refunds of more than Rs 5 million to traders as soon as possible.
Talking to Customs Today, Iqbal said that the board issued Rs 23 billion in wake of refunds up to Rs 5 million. He informed that the FBR has complete data regarding the refunds, adding that all refunds will be settled this year.
Following the directions of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, all arrangements have been completed to issue the refunds, he said.
With the start of new fiscal year, the system of refunds will be more transparent. Software has been prepared to verify sale tax registration number and under this system, the ratio of sales tax and its deduction rate will be set automatically. The system will be linked with main data base of FBR in order to overcome any error in the refund claims.
It may mention here that the FBR is liable to pay around Rs 190 billion in wake of sales tax and income tax refunds to different organizations and business community. The board is to pay Rs 120 billion as sales tax refund and Rs 70 billion under the head of income tax refund.
On the other hand, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar claimed to clear all refunds by August, 2016, while refunds’ process will be initiated from July 1, 2016. The FBR will issues cheques of sales tax refunds and RTOs will issues cheques of income tax refunds. Ministry of Finance would approve funds for the refunds in next week.
Sources at FBR informed that all refunds will be cleared by the end of September, adding that most of the claims have been filed by the textile sector. The issuance of refunds was a major demand of the business community, especially textile sector that has been accepted, they said.
They added that five export-oriented sectors, including textile sector have been given zero rated facility in order to resolve the issue of refunds. On these exemptions, the sectors have assured to increase the exports by 25 percent.
