LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Ijaz Mumtaz has said that at least 36,000 refund cases are pending with Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for a long time.
He alleged that several companies could not get cleared their refund cases even after the lapse of 14 years.
As per FBR data, the total amount of refund in the year 2013-14 has reached the staggering amount of Rs104 billion which is 16.4% higher than the previous year figure of Rs93.6 billion.
It is unfortunate that the FBR is not releasing what it owes to the business community but creating troubles for the businessmen for the recovery of its outstanding dues just to meet the revenue targets and for the sake of show of performance, he added.
LCCI President Ijaz Mumtaz said that there should be a level-playing field in this regard and if a tax defaulter is liable to penalties and attachment of bank accounts, the same should apply to FBR functionaries if they fail to release the valid refunds of the businessmen.
Accountability in this regard would force the FBR officials to expedite the payment of refunds.
He also pointed out that it was very unfortunate that if the FBR initiates a case for recovery against any tax payer, he was not given any opportunity to plead his case as the FBR itself is complainant and itself a judge. What justice one can expect of such an institution, he said.
The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry president urged the FBR to stop attaching business accounts in the larger interest of the economy as it should be the last option and not the priority.
Ijaz A Mumtaz urged the Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to immediately stop the FBR from this practice that is pushing the tax payers to the wall besides denting the reputation of a business-friendly government.
He said that attachment of the bank accounts should be the last option but the RTOs/LTUs are wasting no time in taking punitive action to meet the revenue targets. He said that the Federal Board of Revenue was constituted to facilitate the businessmen but it is presently doing the other way round through.
