ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has asked all trade associations and exporters to provide a soft copy of information relating to certain documents for claiming refunds.

In this regard, CBR has established Sales Tax Automated Refund Repository (STARR) at Lahore, which will have on line connectivity with all the ten sales tax collectorates across the country, said a senior official in the CBR.

The STARR would be effective from November 1 as agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Elaborating further, the official said that the CBR has developed the software to enable the refund claimants to prepare the soft copy of the refund claim as per the required format.

This software has been made available at the CBR website (www.cbr.gov.pk), the official said and added that this software package has also been provided on CDs to all the collectorates of sales tax for further distribution amongst claimants.

According to the official, this software package included instruction manual for installation of the software. It would also provide instructions and online support for its correct operation.

CBR would appreciate the cooperation by all trade associations and exporters in its endeavour to computerize the receipt and sanction of refunds in order to ensure transparency, efficiency, and honesty in payment of refunds to exporters on first-received-first-paid basis, he added.

The government has replaced the manual processing of refunds claims by automated processing for speedy clearance of refunds to exporters.

This system would save a lot of time and money of the exporters as well as the department, the official said.

Through the STARR system, the refund claimant would be in a position to track processing and progress of his claims at the designated website of the CBR, he said.

The automated refund processing system would speed up the refund process, ensuring timely payments to the exporters, he said and added it would also help in safeguarding the legitimate government revenue by detecting and disallowing undue refunds which are claimed on the basis of fake/ flying invoices/documents.