24 July 2004	Saturday	06 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

FAISALABAD, July 23: The All Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association has appreciated the streamlining of sales tax refund system.

In a statement here on Friday, Apcea chief Ahmed Kamal said that textile exporters had been facing great hardship in getting their sales tax refund because the refund hierarchy concerned had been restrictive in issuance of refund.

He said that this practice had created difficulties for the exporters as huge amounts of their refund claims were stuck up, resulting in liquidity crunch. "But the new team of the CBR taking a realistic and pragmatic view of the situation directed issuance of refund to the exporters without any extraneous consideration," the Apcea chief noted.

Resultantly, the flow of sales tax refund quickened and the exporters were facilitated with smooth refund issuance, he stated. Yet another facility provided by the CBR is to ease the complexities of sales tax refund rules. The new rules have shown great improvement, facilitating the processing of refund claims and eliminating the procedural bottleneck, he said.

"These rules have sharply reduced the time lag between the claims filed and final settlement of refund claims. The channelization into green, red and yellow of refund claims has also expedited the refund payment to the established exporters with good standing," Mr Kamal added.

He said that this positive approach should continue in order to achieve the export target in the post-quota regime.