Dar orders swift clearance of refunds

Outstanding tax claims swell to Rs197 billion

ISLAMABAD: After the surfacing of reports about delay in refunds for showing inflated tax revenues, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has ordered a swift settlement of genuine claims and sought a report on the outstanding amount.

The minister gave the directive on Saturday while reviewing implementation of the budget initiatives announced in July last year. He had promised to the business community that their tax claims would be cleared expeditiously.

Dar was informed that sales tax refund cheques amounting to Rs10.187 billion were issued to the textile sector on September 30, 2014, settling all the verified claims filed by June 30, 2014, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Finance.

However, according to sources, outstanding refunds have swelled to Rs197 billion including Rs117 billion in sales tax rebate.

Earlier this week, former finance minister Dr Hafiz Pasha warned that a tax crisis was brewing and the FBR would not be able to collect more than Rs2.6 trillion against the original target of Rs2.81 trillion.

The finance minister was told that directives had been issued to field offices to ensure that all refund claims were disposed of within three months of filing, said the finance ministry. Dar told the FBR to present a complete picture of pending refund cases.

Meeting participants said a major headway had been made in making LNG imports. A total of 325 mmcfd will be imported from April 1 and gradually the volume would reach 400 mmcfd by the end of 2015.

However, the finance ministry didn’t disclose the source of import as the government has not yet announced an LNG import agreement. A deal with Qatar has not been announced so far, restricting imports to spot purchases. LNG will replace furnace oil in power generation.

Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood gave an update about various initiatives, saying that a number of them had already been implemented and progress of various degrees had been achieved on others.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2015.

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