ISLAMABAD (January 31 2004): The CBR will circulate new Sales Tax Refund Rules-2004, to all federations of chambers of commerce and trade bodies for comments after approval by the Finance Ministry.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Friday that the CBR wants to take business community into confidence regarding issuance of new rules and incorporate viable suggestions of trade in the new refund procedure.
The CBR is giving due weightage to the proposals of leading chambers of commerce and industries regarding parameters for declaring any exporter as low risk or high risk before approving refund.
Sources said that the rule 6 of the proposed refund rules says:
“Scrutiny of refund claim: on receipt of the refund claim, it shall be uploaded in Sales Tax Automated Refund Repository Computer System (STARR), which will assign it a unique claim number, process it automatically on the basis of parameters approved by the board, and assign it to either “Green”, “Yellow” or “Red” channel.”
The CBR has been extra cautious while finalising these parameters so that refund of any genuine claimant having clean past record should not be withheld.
The CBR also welcomes suggestions from registered manufacturer-cum exporters and commercial exporters before repealing Sales Tax Refund Rules, 2002.
STARR shall develop profiles of refund claimants categorising them as “Low Risk” “Medium Risk” or “High Risk” on the basis of the criteria specified by the board.
Such profiling shall be given due weightage in automated processing of claims for their assignment to the “Green”, “Yellow” and “Red” channels.
The automated processing of refund claims shall be conducted on the basis of designated electronic format and the supportive documents provided by the claimant.
The claimant shall be responsible for any mis-declaration or provision of incorrect data or documents, and shall be liable for penal action.
