PM Khan asked to honor his commitment of disbursing sales tax refunds

KARACHI: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (FPCCI) President Mian Anjum Nisar urged the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan to honor their commitment of disbursing sales tax refunds within 72 hours of submission of the claims.

He informed that according to the exporters’ associations of Pakistan, the stuck-up refunds claims of sales tax, income tax and duty drawback of five export-oriented industrial sectors – Textile, Leather, Carpet, Sports Goods and Surgical Goods- had reached the tune of around Rs 250 billion whereas the FBR had also acknowledged the amount as Rs 200 billion.

The FPCCI resident said that the number of sales tax refunds cases had considerably increased after imposition of 17% sales tax on domestic supply chain of five leading export-oriented sectors and the government had failed to refund sales tax claim amount under FASTER system within 72 hours, rather Government has not paid exporters’ claims for the last several months.

The FPCCI President said on the other hand authorities do not realize the seriousness of situation and exporter’s refunds are not released on war footing basis, the export sector will completely collapse, he added.

He said that the export is largely a function of industrial production, whereas large scale industry registered a negative growth of 6.45% during the first four months of the fiscal year 2020-21, therefore, exports have also registered a meager 3.2% growth during the first half of the year. Pakistan’s exports are stuck-up around $ 23 billion range since last year.

Anjum Nisar apprehended that FBR’s strict policy would completely hurt the value-added export sectors and therefore, urged the government to take all necessary steps to release payments.