LAHORE, April 6: Scores of textile exporters from across the country are feeling “jittery” due to a delay in the payment of their sales tax refunds because of what they term “failure” of the Central Board of Revenue to feed thousands of badges of sales/purchase invoices of their suppliers into the new computerized sales tax refund system called STREAM.

The refund claims pertain to export shipments made during the last six months or more, according to Lahore sales tax collectorate officials.

“The inordinate delay in the payment of sales tax refunds has taken the steam out of the CBR claims that the automation of the refund processes and system would reduce the time period involved — between the filing of refund claims and payment to the exporters,” said a leading hosiery exporter on Wednesday.

He said the CBR’s decision to suddenly shift to its new STREAM system without proper preparation was the cause of inordinate delay in the payment of sales tax refunds to the exporters.

“The new system has totally collapsed. So far only 1,500 badges have been fed into the computers. About 24,000 badges still remain to be fed. As a result, the refund payments that should have been made to us in January are still pending,” another exporter said.

He said textile exports had been jeopardized due to the delays caused in the refund of sales tax to most of them, especially the smaller exporters.

When contacted, Lahore Sales Tax Collector Nazim Salim admitted that textile exporters were facing a “problem”. But, he said: “It was not due to failure of the STREAM system.” He said the refunds of exporters were delayed because their “suppliers had so far not provided the invoices to the CBR for feeding into the system”.

“Until and unless all the suppliers of an exporter provide the required invoices and information to us and it is uploaded, we cannot issue refunds to them,” he said.

Another Sales Tax Collectorate official, who asked not to be named, said it was wrong to blame the STREAM system for the delay in the refund of sales tax claims. He said a couple of exporters had already been paid their claims, which shows that there was no problem with the system. “The problem has arisen because the suppliers have not provided us with the invoices,” he added.

Some 200 textile exporters — 50 from Lahore, 50 from Faisalabad and 100 from Karachi — have so far been shifted to the STREAM system.

Mr Salim, however, said he was trying to find a solution to the extent of the Lahore collectorate. “We have asked the exporters to physically bring the invoices from their suppliers and get the partial refunds to the extent of those invoices,” he said.