ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has released Rs16.73 billion refund/rebate to exporters during the first quarter (July-September) of the current financial year against Rs18.47 billion it paid out during the same period last year, showing a decrease of 9.4 per cent.

An official source in the CBR told Dawn on Thursday that the decrease in the payment of rebate to exporters in the first quarter this year was due to rationalization of rates of duty drawback on exportable products.

The statistics showed that CBR paid Rs12.83 billion sales tax refunds to exporters during the period under review against Rs12.87 billion during the same period of last year, a decrease of 0.3 per cent.