ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is set to withdraw special pay package/allowance of the officials who will fail to utilise the Computerised Risk-Based Evaluation of Sales Tax (Crest) for detecting discrepancies in the sales tax returns/statements and refund claims.
As per details, the issue of Crest was discussed during the Chief Commissioner conference held at the FBR House. It was pointed out that the FBR has tasked certain Grade 17 to 20 officials with monitoring sales tax data through the Crest. It is their bounden duty to monitor and utilise data of the Crest for detecting discrepancies in the sales tax returns. If the officials fail to perform their duties, the FBR will withdraw their special allowance or double pay package.
As far as training of Crest is concerned, it has been decided by the Chief Commissioner conference that nine months training is enough for the tax officials concerned. Now, the Crest will be fully utilised by the tax officials assigned for this duty without any further delay.
It is to be noted that the Board is also utilising Crest system to ensure filing of withholding statements by sales tax registered persons and enforce return filing by non-filers of income tax and sales tax returns. The system is cross-matching the sales tax purchases with the income tax statements filed by sales tax registered persons. Due to amendment in Finance Act, 2013 in Section 153, every sales tax registered person has been declared withholding agent.
It has been found in the Crest that certain sales tax registered persons, showing purchases in their sales tax returns are not filing withholding statements.
