SRB seeks financial accounts of Axact Dubai office

KARACHI: The Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) has directed the management of Axact (Private) Limited to provide the financial accounts of its Dubai office in order to verify that the Karachi office is not a franchise, an official of the provincial revenue body said on Thursday.
Zafarullah Shaikh, SRB consultant for legal and media, said that the notices had been served on the basis of reports received by the board that the major financial activities were done through the Axact Dubai office.
According to reports, the company was operating two offices simultaneously — Axact Private Limited in Karachi and Axact FZ LLC in Dubai. The SRB official said that in case it was proved that a majority of financial activities had been done through the Dubai office, the exemption available to the company would not be valid any more.
He said that the company registered as an IT export company was exempted from duty and taxes under the Sindh Sales Tax on Services. The official informed that the company was 100 percent compliant in filing their statements of sales tax on services but nil and null.
He said that the revenue authority usually ignored the export-oriented companies, which helped the country in building foreign exchange reserves.The official said that the notices had also been served asking the company about their advertisement and details of services tax.
Further, the company had been asked to provide whether the canteen used within their building is open for public or restricted for their officials. “If it is public, the company has to pay sales tax on services under provincial law,” Shaikh said.
The notices issuance date is May 19 and the company has been directed to reply within seven days.In case the company remained non-responsive for 21 days, the revenue body will take legal action, which will include attachment of bank accounts.