December 27, 2018: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Syed Ali Ahsan has urged the Finance Minister to issue directions to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for processing and payment of outstanding sales tax refunds of the industry for managing serious liquidity issues by the manufacturers/exporters.
In a statement, he said over Rs100 billion sales tax refunds of the textile industry are lying pending, both on account of current and deferred refunds at various Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs), mainly due to the cross matching of invoices by the department and payment of the sales tax on account of the services since 2008 onwards, he added.
According to him, the FBR should issue directions to all the LTUs and the RTOs for expeditious processing of refunds and subsequent payments against the Refund Payment Orders (RPOs) issued in order to save industry facing the threat of being declared as defaulter. Banks are already reluctant to revise limits of companies as per the increased cotton rates. Therefore, further pressure on liquidity for mills keep afloat, he added.
Also, he said, the government should release all outstanding payments on account of DLTL and other textile policy initiatives against the exports, which are in doldrums and exporters are looking towards the government for release of sufficient funds to the State Bank for release of payments to them.
He said the industry has welcomed the step of providing gas and electricity at the regionally competitive rate and is fully convinced that Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision to double exports can be materialized with the provision of other enablers.
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