ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: The scheme of de-registration announced in the budget 2004-05 for retailers and manufacturers with a turnover of less than Rs5 million largely failed to attract maximum taxpayers for withdrawing their names from the tax net.

Officials told Dawn on Friday that so far around 10,000 taxpayers had filed their returns with the sales tax department, which was conditional for de-registration from the sale tax net.

The government had raised the exemption threshold of general sales tax (GST) for manufacturers to Rs5 million from the current Rs2.5 million, while in the case of retailers, it was reduced from Rs20 million to Rs5 million in the budget 2004-05.

With this increase in the threshold, it was estimated to de-register as many as 42,000 taxpayers from the sales tax net as a result of the measures proposed in the budget for promoting growth in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The total number of retailers among these 42,000 stood at 25,000 and manufacturers at 17,000. These taxpayers had a turnover in the range of Rs0.5 million to Rs5 million, and they were now exempted from the sales tax. And these 42,000 taxpayers were paying only around Rs200 million annually to the sales tax department.

The Central Board of Revenue has fixed December 31, 2004 as last date for filing of a return with the sales tax department for availing the facility. These taxpayers would also be exempted from the sales tax audit.

A senior sales tax official told Dawn that it was yet to be decided that either the date would be extended further or not. However, he said that those taxpayers who would apply for de-registration from January 1, 2005 would have to go through normal audit process. According to the official, the issue would be decided in the next collectors of sales tax conference.