LTO Commissioner assures resolving textile mills tax issues

LAHORE: Large Taxpayer Office (LTO) Lahore Chief Commissioner Ahmad Shuja Khan assured All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Punjab of resolving the tax issues on priority basis, including payment of refund claims.
He was addressing the APTMA Punjab members during his visit to the association office on Friday, where APTMA Chairman Abdul Rahim Nasir, Northern Zone Chairman Hamid Zaman, Kamran Arshad Senior Vice Chairman, Treasurer Asad Shafi, Secretary General Raza Baqir, leading textile mills owners and representatives were also present.
With regard to payment of refunds, Khan said that the FASTER plus is processing refunds in 48 hours while the refund process has been improved in general.
He further pointed out that FASTER plus is efficiently processing refunds electronically up to 80 per cent without human involvement, adding that the remaining 20 per cent may have some issues of filing which after resolution will also be processed on fast track.
The Chief Commissioner said that the LTO is processing all deferred cases to ensure that no deferred claim remains pending indefinitely, and efforts are being made to process sales tax claims to avoid deferment of huge amounts by the FASTER system.

He offered APTMA to sit with the LTO with specific details of pending deferred and current claims to expedite the process.
The issuance of exemption certificates is already automated and the process would be expedited to avoid any undue delays faced by the member mills of APTMA Punjab, Khan said.
He agreed that the undue inclusion of all buyers and suppliers of the suspected units in investigations on detection of tax fraud cases may cause harassment to the genuine tax payers.
It would be avoided to summon all registered persons in cases especially where buying and selling was done after confirmation of being on ATL of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and duly complying with the procedures and requirements of the Sales Tax law, he assured.
He said that the FBR is also working to develop a new software which will eliminate flying and bogus invoices.
The LTO is playing its due role in policy making by communicating exporters’ matters and issues by sending them to the Board for implementation.
Responding to the question of raising demand on the issue of goods to unregistered persons, the LTO Chief Commissioner agreed that such demands may not be issued in case of supply of basic inputs like yarn, unprocessed fabric which have no use other than manufacturing.
APTMA Chairman Rahim Nasir, expressed his deep gratitude to the LTO Chief Commissioner for his assurance of early resolution of tax-related issues of the industry.
He hoped that this interaction would continue in future in the larger interest of the country’s exports, employment and investment.
Nasir informed the gathering that the textile exports have performed remarkably well during the current year by registering a growth of 26 per cent, saying that the textile exports would exceed $21 billion this year as against the export of $15 billion last year.
Northern Zone Chairman Hamid Zaman highlighted various tax related issues faced by the textile manufacturers and retailers.
Responding to the difficulties faced by Tier 1 retailers, the Chief Commissioner invited APTMA and retailers association to sit with the LTO to reach a consensus resolution of all problems.