KARACHI, April 21: The Towel Manufacturers’ Association of Pakistan (TMA) has suggested the government to adopt the old law of excise duty to check bogus claims of sales tax refunds.

In a statement issued on Monday, TMA patron-in-chief S M A Rizvi said that year after year there was constant rise in sales tax refund amount obtained through fake and bogus claims but the high-ups at the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) were yet to introduce a system which could check this menace.

He lamented that time and again exporters had pleaded with the government that the old law of excise duty i.e. clearance of goods on Form AR-2 and AR-3 be adopted which did not involve any monetary transaction but this simple law was not acceptable to the CBR who were devising another method called “DTRE” which was extremely complicated and had been undergoing change every now and then.

Rizvi further said that till such time, the rules of sales tax collection were simplified and exports were not made zero rated neither investment nor exports would grow.

He said that CBR figures showed that it had refunded Rs7 billion in 2001 and Rs10 billion in 2002 against such bogus sales tax refund claims.

This crime of denying billions of rupees to the exchequer, he said, was being carried out by a cartel of corrupt businessmen and sales tax officers.

“Without changing the system and taking strict action against such elements the country will continue to suffer on account of huge revenue loss”, he added.