KARACHI: North Karachi Association of Trade & Industry (NKATI) has said that the tax authorities have stopped sales tax refunds for the last one month.
Faisal Moiz Khan, NKATI President, in a statement issued on Monday expressed deep concern over the undue delay in payment of sales tax refund claims by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), and demanded to release funds immediately as per the rules, as the exporters, especially the textile exporters, were facing difficulties due to unjustified delay in sales tax refund claims contrary to the sales tax rules.
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NKATI president said that as per Rule F39 of the Sales Tax Act, 2006, sales tax refund claims for which approved electronic refund payment orders (ERPOs) were issued, will pay within 72 hours but funds have been stopped for more than a month.
Due to stoppage of refunds, exporters, especially the small and medium exporters, were facing severe financial crunch. “As a result of which the production as well as the exports also badly affected,” he added.
Moiz said that several requests have been made by the exporters to the FBR for immediate release of refund claims, but the payment of refunds is still pending.
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“Due to the government’s inability to pay sales tax refunds to textile exporters under approved electronic refund payment orders by the end of December 2022 and FBR’s irresponsible statement that the government did not have the relevant funds for the payment, the exporters is facing serious concern, as their billions of rupees are stuck with the government in the form of sales tax refunds, which the government is using delay tactics to pay.”
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NKATI president was of the view that the textile exporters are concerned that the government has mismanaged their sales tax funds and used these funds for some other purpose, so the exporters are suffering from this irregularity of the government and the export production is also severely affected, and the worrying thing is that foreign buyers are also cancelling their orders due to which the exporters are facing huge losses.
Faisal Moiz demanded that payments of sales tax refund claims under approved electronic refund payment orders should be made within 72 hours as per rules and regulations.
