KARACHI, March 11: Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PLGMEA) chairman Fawad Ijaz Khan has expressed the hope that new computerized sales tax refund system (NCSTRS) will be instrumental in eliminating the fake claims and expediting the refund of genuine exporters.

He thanked member sales tax, Ramzan Bhatti, for solving the problems faced by the exporters, says a PLGMEA statement here on Tuesday.

It said that as per the NCSTRS of CBR under SRO 575(1)/2002, the exporters were required to file their refund claims on prescribed computer format from September 1, 2002, when SRO 575 became applicable.

The refund claims submitted before September 1 were filed according to SRO 417(1)/2002. But on February 21, 2003, the CBR issued instructions that pending refund cases submitted prior to September 1, 2002, should also file again as per conditions of SRO 575 along with necessary documents and prescribed computer disk.

This notification was creating problems for exporters and their pending refund claims were not being released, the PLGMEA statement maintained.

It said the PLGMEA chief took up the matter with the CBR and requested the member sales tax to ease the new ‘harsh condition’ of retrospective re-submission of refund cases prior to Sept 1.

The statement said that Ramzan Bhatti listened to the concern of the PLGMEA and agreed that refund claims filed before Sept 1, should be as per SRO 417 and not as per SRO 575.—APP