KARACHI: All Pakistan Business Forum (APBF) President Ibrahim Qureshi has urged the government to adopt automatic refund mechanism, which would reduce complaints, ensure transparency and boost exports.
The government should consider automating the refund system, which would allay concerns of the business community and reduce load on the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), said Ibrahim Qureshi. Adding that automatic refunds would end delay in payments and trigger exports, which were going down since some years due to international recession. “The government can install software that could process the refund claims and transfer money in the account of exporter within seven days of export.”
Qureshi said that if transactions through bank cheques, credit and debit card can be updated within seconds, the same can be applied to export refunds. He added that sometimes Refund Payment Orders were issued but exporters failed to pay on time, which created problems in their businesses.
Liquidity problem has taken a toll on many exporters and some have no option but to get costly credit from market to fulfil commitments, he noted. Qureshi lauded the zero-rating facility for important export sectors, saying that the bold step would provide much needed relief to the exporters who were really burdened due to levy of sales tax and severe liquidity crunch. Many exporters were fighting a losing battle in the global markets due to stiff competition but now situation has changed, he observed.
