ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), Justice (Retd) Saleem Akhtar has asked the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to issue refunds withheld for the last one year in violation of laws to exporters.

The decision was taken on the complaint of M/s KAM International, Karachi who complained against the sales tax department for not releasing the sanctioned refund claims for the period August 2002 to June 2003.

The justice observed that the complainants were justified in their claim that when their major suppliers have been deleted from the list of suspected units, the withheld refunds of Rs35 million and the processing charges of Rs7.3 million should be released as also the amount of Rs2.2 million withheld on account of wrong allegation of non-submission of the record of March 2000.

The justice in his decision recommended to the CBR to direct the collector of sales tax to examine the issues raised by the complainants and after verification, release the admissible refunds under advice to the adjudication officer and process and decide the refund claims not subject to the audit report or the contravention report.

The action should be taken within 30 days for determining the refund claims and compliance be reported within 45 days to the office of FTO.