KARACHI: The Sindh Revenue Board has failed to recover more than Rs 1 billion under the head of sales tax from the influential IT firm Axact.
The insiders in the tax collection body told Customs Today that the sales tax returns filed by M/s Axact in four months of 2014 — May, June, July and August — were of Rs. 1.18 billion. This amount is shown in annexure ‘C’ of the returns filled by Axact itself; but despite the declaration of the company, the Sindh Revenue Board remained reluctant to collect sales tax which accounts for 16 percent of the declared amount.
Thus the negligence and inefficiency of the Sindh Revenue Board management caused a loss of Rs 200 million on declared returns. If the amount declared by the Axact in these four months may be assumed as correct, the estimated sales tax would have been Rs 1.2 billion. The matter needs to be investigated.
Surprisingly the company Axact which claims to be the leading IT company of Pakistan showed zero amount in its returns filed before the Sindh Revenue Board during the nine months from July 2013 to March 2014, that means in the said nine months Axact did zero business, no export, no import and neither they got any services nor provided any services, sources added.
According to Section 28 of Sindh sales tax on Services Act 2011, SRB is bound to authorize any officer not below the rank of assistant commissioner to conduct an inquiry or investigation under Section 48 of SST Act 2011 which may or may not be in addition to any audit carried out for the same period.
It is also interesting to note that M/s Axact has never deposited a single penny as sales tax on Services since July 2013 till date while the Sindh Revenue Board officials were maintaining their mum on the issue, sources further added.
