FAISALABAD, Nov 25: Textile exporters have asked the Central Board of Revenue to make payment of billions of rupees Sales Tax refund claims which were held by it on unconcerned objections.

In a presentation to Collector Sales Tax Shafqat Mahmood here on Friday, Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) chairman Rana Arif Tauseef said that the CBR had deferred payment of billions of rupees from the monthly refund claims of the exporters on account of nonfiler, output exceed declared, non-existence of supplier, deregistration of units, abnormal tax profile of suppliers, duplication of shipping bills and invoices etc.

He said that the refund claims were being held due to the reason that the STARR was raising objection of invalidity of shipping bills. Due to rush of work at Customs Collectorates during September 2005, most of the shipments of the exporters could not reach Karachi up to September 30, 2005 and as a result date to all such consignments were endorsed during October 2005.

Collector Sales Tax Shafqat Mahmood said that the CBR had built a new check in STARR regarding cross matching of number and date of shipping bills declared by the exporters while feeding data on computer diskette with the data of exports received from customs department.

But, he said, unfortunately the officials of STARR had not updated data.

Regarding extension in time period of unconsumed stock, he said that higher authorities were cognizant of the matter and decision was awaited.

As to the deferment of sales tax refunds on purchases from deregistered units, he said that consensus had been reached that refund would not be deferred in cases where payment had been made by the exporters to such deregistered units as per provisions of section 73 of sales tax act 1990.