MULTAN: Federal Board of Revenue Inland Revenue-Operations Member Dr Muhammad Irshad asked the business community to pay its due role for economic stability of the country.
He stated this during a meeting with Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) in Multan where cotton ginners informed the member about their issues.
The member said that a country could not run its affairs without collection of taxes, adding that it should be the prime responsibility to file the tax returns timely, as development of the country directly linked to the revenue collection.
Regional Tax Office, Multan Chief Commissioner Khawaja Saleem Raza Asif, Bahawalpur Chief Commissioner Ghzanfar Hussain, Multan RTO Commissioner Zubair Bilal, Commissioner Yasir Ali, Additional Commissioner Muhammad Naveed along with others were present on the occasion.
In the meeting, the member asked the PCGA to provide list of ginners who had not received refunds so that payments could be made to them against their refund claims. He added that refund claims valuing up to Rs 5 million will be issued.
Moreover, he added that the finance minister had already promised to clear dues under refund claims before July 2016 no matter how old they may be.
Following the complaints of ginners, Dr Irshad also sought details regarding textile companies that the textile sector had cut withholding tax worth billions of rupees from ginners but did not deposit it with FBR.
Dr Irshad proposed to form a six members committee comprising two officers each from RTO Multan and Bahawalpur and PCGA, which will hold meetings every month to discuss problems being faced by ginners and resolve them.
He asked tax officials not to issue notices to ginners until the committee not settler their matters. He further ordered that the notices issued already should be stopped.
He concluded that cotton ginners could have contact to him if they face any issue regarding the tax returns or other procedures, besides warning the officials of stern action, if they found involved in harassing the taxpayers.
Multan RTO Chief Commissioner Khawaja Saleem Raza Asif assured all members of PCGA that a special focus will be put on their issues, adding that the RTO has already forwarded their suggestions for the settlement of their matters to high ups.
