LAHORE -  All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Aamir Fayyaz has condemned the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for rolling back all sales tax refund payment orders (RPOs) issued to the export-oriented sectors.

The APTMA chief urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to intervene and direct the FBR to make payments without any further delay. He said that only the immediate payment of all outstanding refunds of sales tax to claimants against the already issued RPOs could save the industry, which is facing severe liquidity crunch.

He said the FBR has been applying unjust tactics to delay refund payment for the 2016-17 tax period, as the Chief (Automation and Sales Tax) of FBR has issued instructions for rolling back of RPOs to all Chief Commissioners RTO/LTU. He said any such situation would cause serious liquidity crunch for exporters to process further export orders.

The APTMA chairman said that Rs25 billion input tax refunds of exporters are pending for disbursement against the already issued RPOs. He further said that the FBR has prescribed procedure for rolling back the refund claims filed under expeditious refund system (ERS) under STGO No.19/2010. However, the FBR has opted to behave in a slipshod manner and rejected all claims through a letter without assigning reasons on individual claims, he added.

He said the FBR should have processed refund claims through ERS for tax period of July 2016 onwards and subsequently conducted post refund audit instead of asking field officials to do the scrutiny before issuing RPOs. He pointed out that the prime minister had announced export-led growth package on January 10. It is unfortunate that four months have been passed so far and no payment has been made to exporters against the realization of exports, he added.

Fayyaz said the drawback of taxes, as agreed and announced by the prime minister against realisation of exports should be processed immediately. He said the amount to be disbursed over the last four months is estimated to Rs30-40 billion at Rs10 billion per month against exports of 18 months to make it a total of Rs180 billion package.

The APTMA chairman said the government was losing its credibility with respect to commitments it had made repeatedly to the industry and exporters. As a consequence, exports, indigenous products and new investment in the industrial sector are being hampered by and large. He said that immediate steps are needed to arrest the adverse situation arising out of the liquidity crunch, as the exporters are under the threat of losing their hard earned foreign buyers.