Knitwear exporters dismayed by delay in tax refunds

PHMA VC says promise of releasing refunds in 72 hours remains unfulfilled

LAHORE: The value-added knitwear industry has expressed its disappointment over the performance of the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) newly launched Fully Automated Sales Tax e-Refund (FASTER) system, seeking a new and foolproof system for full and speedy release of refunds.

Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PHMA) Vice-Chairman Shafiq Butt, in a statement, criticised the revenue board for not releasing billions of rupees in refunds for the exporters despite promises.

"FBR's commitment to release exporters' refunds within 72 hours has not been fulfilled completely," he remarked.

He requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to give directives to the tax agency to remove bottlenecks to the new refund payment system as the exporters were facing a severe liquidity crunch due to the delay in sales tax refunds.

Butt pointed out that the FBR had insisted that it would pay refunds through the newly installed FASTER system to the exporters of five major sectors within 72 hours of submission of claims.

However, at the initial stage, the exporters faced a lot of hardship in filing sales tax returns for getting the refund as the FASTER system never worked because its 'Annexure H' had many flaws.

He called for establishing a mechanism to find out the reasons for putting off up to 25% of exporters' refunds. "The automated refund system should point out the reason as to why it is not making full payment and deferring 10-25% of refunds, though the exporters have submitted complete documents."

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2020.

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