PTEA Concerned Over Lack Of Action Over Refund Claims
Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has expressed serious concern over non-payment of exporters’ long outstanding refund claims despite the record revenue collection of Rs 2.1 trillion in first nine months of current fiscal year by the FBR.
Terming the act as unjustified, here on Sunday, PTEA Chairman Asghar Ali said that on the one side FBR is claiming record revenue collection while on the other side exporters’ billions of rupees are still unpaid on account of sales tax, Duty Drawback and Income tax refund claims creating severe cash flow crunch. Quoting the figures revealed by the Federal Board of Revenue in a meeting with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, he said that FBR has collected over Rs 2.1 trillion during July-March 2015-16 as compared to Rs 1.75 trillion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, depicting 19.7 percent growth. We are failed to understand that why exporters’ refund claims are withheld depriving the exporters from their basic working capital. Growth in revenue collection is a positive sign but continuous decline in exports is setting back the economy. Extreme cash flow crunch has squeezed the financial streams and breading the liquidity jerks; resultantly exports are falling consistently both in value and quantities, adversely impacting the economy, he added. Country’s exports are falling at a time when its regional peers are increasing their shares in global trade. Competing countries are rapidly multiplying their exports just because of the edge they have on the cost of doing business and other incentives offered by their Governments. Government should immediately release our working capital stuck up in refund regime and revive the idle capacity to get significant growth in exports.
PTEA Chairman Asghar Ali said that finance is imperative to run the wheel of industry; whereas major portion of finance has been blocked in refund cycle. Explaining, he said that according to law, input tax shall be refunded not later than 45 days of filing of refund claim but here sales tax refund of goods exported 12 month earlier are still outstanding and exporters are unable to expand their turn over. Furthermore, deferred and income tax refund claims are pending from years. Lack of basic working capital has been a cause of serious concern for exports and is a major setback to textile industry. Textile exports are crumbling and the industry and business are squeezing due to non-availability of funds and largest employer in country’s manufacturing sector is currently going through a very tough time and unless remedial measures are immediately taken, thousands of jobs are in danger, he added.
Government should speed up the process of paying out billions of rupees outstanding tax refunds to get maximum industrial growth and significant increase in exports. He urged the Government to rescue the textile exporters and immediately release their blocked working capital to save the industry from bankruptcy.Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has expressed serious concern over non-payment of exporters’ long outstanding refund claims despite the record revenue collection of Rs 2.1 trillion in first nine months of current fiscal year by the FBR.
Terming the act as unjustified, here on Sunday, PTEA Chairman Asghar Ali said that on the one side FBR is claiming record revenue collection while on the other side exporters’ billions of rupees are still unpaid on account of sales tax, Duty Drawback and Income tax refund claims creating severe cash flow crunch. Quoting the figures revealed by the Federal Board of Revenue in a meeting with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, he said that FBR has collected over Rs 2.1 trillion during July-March 2015-16 as compared to Rs 1.75 trillion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, depicting 19.7 percent growth. We are failed to understand that why exporters’ refund claims are withheld depriving the exporters from their basic working capital. Growth in revenue collection is a positive sign but continuous decline in exports is setting back the economy. Extreme cash flow crunch has squeezed the financial streams and breading the liquidity jerks; resultantly exports are falling consistently both in value and quantities, adversely impacting the economy, he added. Country’s exports are falling at a time when its regional peers are increasing their shares in global trade. Competing countries are rapidly multiplying their exports just because of the edge they have on the cost of doing business and other incentives offered by their Governments. Government should immediately release our working capital stuck up in refund regime and revive the idle capacity to get significant growth in exports.
PTEA Chairman Asghar Ali said that finance is imperative to run the wheel of industry; whereas major portion of finance has been blocked in refund cycle. Explaining, he said that according to law, input tax shall be refunded not later than 45 days of filing of refund claim but here sales tax refund of goods exported 12 month earlier are still outstanding and exporters are unable to expand their turn over. Furthermore, deferred and income tax refund claims are pending from years. Lack of basic working capital has been a cause of serious concern for exports and is a major setback to textile industry. Textile exports are crumbling and the industry and business are squeezing due to non-availability of funds and largest employer in country’s manufacturing sector is currently going through a very tough time and unless remedial measures are immediately taken, thousands of jobs are in danger, he added.
Government should speed up the process of paying out billions of rupees outstanding tax refunds to get maximum industrial growth and significant increase in exports. He urged the Government to rescue the textile exporters and immediately release their blocked working capital to save the industry from bankruptcy.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.