SIALKOT: President Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) hailed decision of the government to clear pending duty drawback claims of the exporters of Sialkot. He said that the decision would help export sector overcome its problems and would result in its robust performance.
An SCCI press release issued here revealed that according to information received from Collector of Customs Sialkot, Government has issued instructions to pay duty drawback claims worth Rs.700 million during the month of January to clear the backlog of refund cases and the staff of the Collectorate will work rigorously to process and issue refunds during the given time period, which would help in clearance of long outstanding Customs refunds.
He said that the SCCI had focused to resolve issue of pending refunds as pendency had soared to around Rs.4 billion and period of pendency had increased to more than 18 months.
He apprised that during visit of Prime Minister of Pakistan to Sialkot Chamber, the issue was brought to his knowledge and in response PM announced payment of refunds by 15th February, 2018.
SCCI President Zahid Latif Malik said that business community of Sialkot would be more gratefull to the Prime Minister of Pakistan if similar instructions might also be issued to Inland Revenue Department to clear pending Sales Tax and Income Tax refunds. He stated that amount of the exporters withheld in the form of refunds had serious effects on the exports and payment of those refunds would help revive the export sector.
