FBR releases Rs30 billion refunds to 554 exporters

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday released cash amount of Rs30 billion refunds to total 554 exporters after cancellation of issued bonds.

The government had issued bonds of worth Rs30 billion to exporters a few months back but the exporters were facing difficulties because these bonds were not tradable, causing problems for exporters. The exporters had demanded of the government to cancel the bonds and provide them cash amount of Rs30 billion. The FBR high-ups confirmed that the cash amount was released on Thursday to hundreds of exporters that will help them overcome their liquidity crunch.

“Yes, we have made cash payment of total refund amount of Rs30 billion to 554 persons,” the FBR’s Member Inland Revenue Policy Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar confirmed to The News when asked him in this regard on Thursday night. The FBR also announced that it has disbursed payment to exporters/bond holders by redeeming bonds issued to the refund claimants.

The government took this step in order to resolve liquidity crunch being faced by the exporters. The exports have just started picking up momentum as export earning fetched close to 10 percent increase in recent months after witnessing flat growth in the last so many years.

Meanwhile, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Wednesday met a group of leading businessmen representing various export sectors contributing nearly $2 billion exports, to discuss and review progress on the issues pertaining to payment of Sales Tax refunds to exporters. Adviser to Adviser Commerce Ali Habib, FBR Chairman Syed Shabbar Zaidi and Secretary Finance Naveed Kamran Baloch were also present in the meeting, which was attended by leading exporters from Lahore and Karachi, including Shahid Soorty, Musaadiq Zulqarnain, Fawad Anwer, Shahid Abdullah, Bashir Ali Mohammad, Rizwan Dewan, Asif Tata, Ahmed Ibrahim, Sameer Chinoy and Khurram Mukhtar.

During the meeting, various proposals were put forward by the businessmen and exporters and the FBR was advised to work more aggressively on reforming and simplifying the processes through automation for early and prompt payment of sales tax refunds.

Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told the businessmen that he had already constituted a committee comprising officials from the FBR and members of APTMA to simplify the Form-H within the next few days to make it simple and easy for the exporters claiming sales tax refunds. The businessmen were asked to nominate anyone they liked to become part of the committee as he wanted to ensure hassle-free submission of tax refund claims and their subsequent payment without any delay.

The businessmen thanked the adviser and his team in the FBR for ensuring payment of Rs30 billion sales tax refunds to the exporters in the last couple of days. The adviser told the businessmen that the FBR was working very hard to facilitate the exporters and another Rs2 to Rs3 billion tax refunds would also be issued within the next couple of days.