ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has assured the textile exporters of revising the benchmark for issuance of sales tax refund on packing materials, chemicals such caustic soda and other accessories used in processing of exportable goods.
FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa made the assurance to the exporters during a meeting with members of Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) here.
The FBR chairman agreed to revise the benchmark for refund on packing materials, chemicals like caustic soda and other accessories used in processing of exportable goods while alternate fuels like diesel, furnace oil etc would be treated separately. PTEA Chairman Sheikh Ilyas Mehmood informed that most ticklish issue was severe liquidity crunch as 30 to 35 percent working capital of the textile exporters had been stuck in sales tax, customs rebate and federal excise duty refund regimes, adding that release of the funds would enable the exporters to expand their businesses.
On the occasion, Tariq Bajwa pledged that the FBR would strive for facilitating textile exporters and assured exporters of removal of bottlenecks and expediting payments of sales tax refunds. Tax authorities assured to accelerate the refund system and necessary directions in this regard would be forwarded to Regional Tax Office for speedy processing of refund claims. They informed that FBR, on directions of the government was in process to clear all 25,000 claims up to Rs1 million during current month.
The association informed the FBR Chief that processing of custom rebate refund claims at Faisalabad Model Customs Collectorate was very slow as thousands of custom rebate refund claims of textile exporters are pending with Collectorate creating severe financial problems. Due to this, most of textile exporters have shifted their export shipment to Port Qasim, Karachi.
To which, the FBR chairman directed the Member Customs Nisar Muhammad Khan to look into the matter and hold a joint meeting of textile exporters and officials of Faisalabad Model Custom Collectorate and remove the irritants in processing of custom rebate refund processing.
