PESHAWAR, March 5: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has constituted a committee to make recommendations for simplification of rules for filing sales tax returns and obtaining refunds.

The committee, comprising senior CBR officials, will propose steps for providing better facilities for taxpayers by introducing amendments to the Sales Tax Rules, 1999.

“Simplification of rules through such amendments will address the concerns of taxpayers arising in the wake of the introduction of automated taxpaying mechanism,” a senior official of the Regional Tax Office (RTO) told businessmen at a meeting held at the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) here on Monday.

The meeting was convened specially to discuss the problems of the local business community relating to income tax and sales tax. Director General RTO Abida Ali and other senior officials of the major tax-collecting agencies were invited.

Apprising the DG RTO of the problems relating to the income tax, Haji Mohammed Asif, chairman of the SCCI standing committee on income tax, lauded the ongoing reforms process in the tax management and administration system.

He said the reforms initiatives had helped reduce major problems of taxpayers, but many sales tax refund cases were still pending with the RTO needing immediate settlement “because it directly affects the country’s exports.”

He said the introduction of Universal Self-Assessment Scheme (USAS) had created the ‘much-needed’ trust between tax collectors and taxpayers.

Mr Asif, however, emphasised that small traders were still unaware of the importance of filing income tax returns.

He suggested to the RTO to organise awareness seminars for such small taxpayers “because they make a major contribution to the overall tax collection.”

Zahidullah Khan Shinwari, chairman of the SCCI standing committee on sales tax, lauded the reforms process in the taxation system. He, however, raised a number of issues hindering smooth operations concerning exports.

He said the CBR introduced automated system for sales tax refunds, but the authorities were still unable to settle this long-standing issue appropriately.

Even though the physical verification of refund cases was exempted under the automated system, the authorities were still conducting manual verification which was causing overlapping.

He also counted delays in non-issuance of adjustment notes and discrimination in sales tax refunds as some of the other problems.

Addressing on the occasion, the DG RTO said the introduction of reforms initiatives was aimed at evolving trust between taxpayers and tax collectors. Establishment of RTO and introduction of USAS were steps towards this end, he added.