ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has upgraded the Fully Automated Sales Tax e-Refund (Faster) system for expeditious and transparent issuance of refunds to exporters.

The new system called Faster Plus will resolve the issues of refunds blockage.

An official statement said the new system will provide an opportunity to exporters to review and resubmit their claims after removing shortcomings. In the previous system, refund claims stuck up at processing stage due to any reasons including erroneous filing stand rolled back to claimants.

To restrict erroneous filing of refund claims and ensure that only valid refund claims are filed entry-gate check points have been applied in the Faster Plus system. This will ensure that all the refund claims which are filed are processed. No refund claim will now be stuck up at pre-processing stage.

If a refund claimant files his refund claim with errors, the upgraded system would guide him/her in easy non-technical language.

Parameters have been updated to categorise ex-zero rated sectors so that refunds claims are properly channeled through the Faster Module.

A new dashboard has been activated at the FBR e-portal to view the stage-wise update regarding refund claims without contacting any officials of the revenue body or PRAL.

Additionally, a mobile app — which will enable sales tax refund claimant to view the status of refunds claim at each stage of processing — has been made part of Faster Plus system.

Updates on refund status could also be ascertained by sending a SMS at 9966 through registered mobile of the refund claimant.

FBR’s automation process of refund of Sales Tax had started in 2002 through introduction of STARR system, which was semi-automated system and refund claimants would file refund claims through Refund Claims Preparatory System (RCPS). Refund data was taken to field offices on CDs where the refund claims were sanctioned at field level.

In the year 2011, ERS was introduced for processing of refund claims of manufacturers-cum-exporters who could file their refund claims online whereas STARR system continued for processing of refund claims for other sectors.

In the aftermath of the rollback of zero rating, Faster was introduced with effect from July, 2019 for processing of refund claims of ex-zero rated exporters at a fast pace of 72 hours.

Since the system was newly made, many system glitches marred proper working of Faster system. Since its beginning, due to these technical glitches in the Faster system, refund claimants faced problems like many of the cases stuck up at pre-processing stage, missing amount of refunds, no intimation about the status of refund and delays in processing and sanctioning of refunds.

The system was also new for refund claimants and erroneous filing of refund claims through Annex-H was rampant.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2020