- Exporters in Pakistan are outraged over the sudden suspension of online processing for sales tax refund claims by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
- The suspension affects all exporters except those in the erstwhile zero-rated sectors.
- The FASTER system, introduced in 2019, was used to process sales tax refunds for all exporters without human intervention.
- The FBR has now started rejecting sales tax refund claims from exporters outside of the zero-rated sectors.
- Tax experts argue that the FBR should have amended the rules instead of restricting the processing of sales tax refunds.
- The suspension will force exporters to seek manual processing of their refund claims, increasing interaction with tax officers.
- The move is met with confusion as the benefits are unclear and it may create more challenges for genuine exporters.
- Recent studies show that some sectors not included in the zero-rated list have higher export volumes.
- The FBR is urged to avoid creating further obstacles for exporters and incentivize them instead.
- The method being adopted by the FBR, promoting manual verification and interaction, is raising concerns within the export community.
Source: pkrevenue.com
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
