FBR delaying refunds to meet first quarter revenue target! September 05, 2014 MUHAMMAD ALI Following dull economic activity amid political impasse that has entered 20th day, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has started delaying tax refund claims to meet its first quarter revenue target, it is learnt on Thursday. According to sources, over Rs 2.3 billion tax refunds were already pending for months and the FBR had neither released these tax refunds nor facilitated taxpayers in fresh tax refund claims. Moreover, sources said the release of tax refunds was earlier suspended only before June but now the board, in order to meet its quarterly revenue target during present political impasse, has started delaying tax refund claims. They said the restriction imposed by the finance ministry to release over Rs 0.5 million tax refunds was supposed to be a budgetary measure for tax year 2013-14, but current delay tactics from tax offices to release tax refunds was incomprehensible. Sources said that tax refunds of major multinational and national companies, which stood in billions, had been stuck since last October. They added that these companies, which were considered as efficient taxpayers, were now passing through liquidity problems, due to unnecessary blockage of tax refunds. Moreover, sources said big taxpayers, who were earlier pressurised not to file tax refund till the end of June, were now facing rejection or delay against their refund claims in current fiscal year. On the other hand, the FBR officials dispelled the impression that they withheld billions of rupees tax refunds, saying that the department was processing refund claims as per procedure and there was no restriction on the release of tax refunds.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 05:17:58 +0000
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