PESHAWAR, Nov 15: The Sales Tax Collectorate of Peshawar has recommended the inception of joint audits against 30 export companies of the NWFP to verify their refund claims.“We have sent a list of at least 30 exporting firms, operating in Peshawar, to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), seeking its approval for initiating audits,” Najeeb-ur-Rehman Abbasi, Collector Sales Tax and Federal Excise said here on Thursday.

He said sales tax refund facility was misused in recent past and the FBR was bound to put a check on it. Initiating investigative audits was a process to discourage such practices, he added.

Mr Abbasi, who recently assumed the charge of his new assignment, was speaking at a meeting of the local business community held at the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI). SCCI president Liaqat Ahmad Khan chaired the meeting.

Mr Abbasi claimed that the ongoing reform process in the FBR had changed the tax culture of the country and now the tax officers were working as facilitators to taxpayers.

He said main idea behind holding of joint audit of these identified 30 companies was to avoid duplication and reduce the chances of any discrepancy.

To a point regarding flaws in the electronic filing system, Mr Abbasi said that a team of FBR experts would visit Peshawar next week to get first-hand information about the weaknesses of the system. The team would meet members of the business community to understand their problems they had been confronting with the automated system, he added.

Zahid Khan Shinwari, the chairman of the SCCI’s standing committee on Sales Tax, apprised the Collector about various problems of the business community.Mr Shinwari said technical problems in e-filing were making the whole idea of automation useless. He said attention should be given to make it in line with the requirements of taxpayers.

He called for an end of multiple audits, which he said was creating harassment among genuine exporters. He demanded speedy disposal of sales tax refund claims.

Former SCCI president Ghulam Sarwar Mohmand, executive members, Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, Haji Mohammad Asif and Sharafat Ali Mubarik also spoke on the occasion.