ISLAMABAD: The federal Tax ombudsman has directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to implement the decision to refund excessive excise duty to 24 complainants in the Pak Suzuki case.
As per the details, twenty four complaints were filed against FBR Islamabad and Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited, in terms of Section 10(1) of the Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance, 2000 (FTO Ordinance) for charging sales tax at the rate of 17 per cent on the purchase of Suzuki Cultus vehicle 998cc after July 2021 as against 12.5 per cent, which was the actual rate at that time.
In this way, the taxpayers were constrained to pay in excess of what was actually due.
FTO had recommended that collection of the sales tax in excess of being legislated in the Finance Act 2021 and delay in settling the tax refund tantamount to maladministration.
The President of Pakistan had upheld the decision and rejected FBR’s pleas against the recommendation for a refund.
Federal Tax Ombudsman Asif Mahmood Jah had directed Advisor Income Tax Karachi to hold meetings with the stakeholders for smooth implementation of the findings/recommendations in the refereed complaints of overcharge of tax by Pak Suzuki.
Both the representative of LTO Karachi and Pak Suzuki Company agreed Pak Suzuki will furnish the refund claims under Section 66 to LTO Karachi in respect of refund due to the subject complaint.
The refund claim will be accompanied by the relevant invoices and proof of tax paid on these invoices.
On receipt of the refund claims, LTO Karachi will process the claim as per law and issue a refund to Pak Suzuki Company.
Pak Suzuki Company will then remit the amount to all the complainants as per their due share and submit proof of payment to LTO Karachi and the FTO office for the final implementation of the order.
As per the information with the FTO office, apart from the 24 initial complaints, there are 9000 such buyers of upto 1000cc vehicles who have been charged tax not due after July 1st 2022.
