ISLAMABAD, June 20: The government in budget has fixed a uniform rate of fee at Rs1000 for filing appeals to collector (Appeals), the appellate tribunal and high court, said a notifications issued by Central Board of Revenue (CBR).

To reduce the burden on the appellate tribunal, the institution of collector (Appeals) has been revived by insertion of a new section 45B in the sales tax act. All appeals against adjudication orders passed by officers up to the rank of deputy collector under section 11 and 45 would be made to the collector appeals.

Similarly, appeals against orders passed by the additional collectors and collectors (including collector appeals) will continue to be made to the appellate tribunal.

By an amendment in section 45, the board has been empowered to delegate powers of adjudication to officers of sales tax other than the collector, additional collector and deputy collector. Such powers were needed to provide for expeditious settlement of cases involving small amounts or only fixed amounts of additional tax and penalty.

A new section 11A has been added in the Act, empowering the department to recover the short paid amounts in case of short filing without the formality of adjudication. However, adjudication would be required before the recovery of additional tax liability and imposition of penalty in such cases.

The regulation, voluntary registration and de-registration rules, 1996 have been amended, enabling the board to transfer registration of any person from one collectorate to another collectorate or LTU either on its own motion or on an application by the registered person.

On such transfer, all relevant records and liabilities would be shifted to the new collectorate or LTU. Under this, the collector or director general of large taxpayers unit (LTU) as the case may be would issue a new registration number to the registered person.