KARACHI, Oct 18: Malfunctioning of the central electronic refund processing system “Stream” in Lahore is causing a delay in payment of sales tax refund worth millions of rupees.

This was stated by sales tax collector Ghulam Ahmed in a meeting held on Monday with members of the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea).

The Prgmea delegation, led by its central chairman Bilal Mulla, urged the collector to arrange the payment of refund before Eidul Fitr in order to help exporters pay wages and bonus to their workers.

The delegation expressed concern over non-payment of refund under various pretexts that included submission of invoice summary statement, verification of stock consumed in export and finally malfunctioning of the Stream system.

Bilal Mulla said that Prgmea was ready to provide undertaking on behalf of its members that any excess refund obtained by them would be paid back or adjusted in future claims.

The collector, however, expressed his inability to pay refund until November 10, when the October returns would reveal the amount of stocks consumed in exports.

He promised to make payment on sales tax claims deferred under the section 66, but Prgmea pointed out that the quantum of payment on such claims would not ease exporters’ liquidity problem.

The collector was assisted by additional collector S.T.R. Zaidi, while the Prgmea team included Atiq Kochra, Abdul Wahid Bandukda, Razzak Paracha, Dawood Jhakura and Abdul Rahman.