January 17, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 07, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Jan 16: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued three sales tax notifications, amending the Sales Tax Act.

According to SRO47 of 2008, the FBR has given powers of filing of sales tax appeals to officers below the rank of BPS-19.

Now all such appeals pending before the appellate tribunal, even if filed by an officers of rank below additional collector, would be considered to have been filed by the additional collector, and now such appeals cannot be challenged on the ground that these were not filed by additional collector.

Meanwhile, the FBR has extended powers of Sales Tax Act to officers of the Customs Intelligence Directorate in their respective jurisdiction vide SRO-48.

Through yet another SRO (49), the scope of mandatory electronic filing has been extended to all sales tax returns and statements due under section 26 and 27 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.

Previously such mandatory e-filing was restricted to monthly sales tax returns.

Now, statements and special returns, such as summary of invoices and special return of production data, shall also be filed electronically.

However, mandatory e-filing continues to be restricted to private and public limited companies and those registered in any of the Large Taxpayers Unit.