Lahore, February 01, 2018 (PPI-OT): Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA) has complained that billions of rupees of Chemical Manufacturers are stuck up in sales tax refunds, which are pending till date despite government promises for speedy payment. Mr. Iqbal Kidwai, Secretary General PCMA, in a statement issued here today, informed that the long delay in sales tax refund had resulted into higher borrowing by private sector from the commercial banks that is raising input costs making the national exports uncompetitive in the global market.
PCMA Secretary General told that the Chemical industries were facing a severe liquidity crisis due to the prevailing situation, which needs immediate remedy from the concerned authorities. He said that the chemical industry was endeavouring to achieve competitiveness through imports substitution and implementing best practices to bring the local chemical units at par with the world standards.
“We are engaged in implementation of the Responsible Care Program to enable the local chemical industry become respectable member of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA)”, he said adding that after completing a successful implementation of the responsible care program ICCA had adopted the PCMA as its member. But, the long delay of sales tax refund cases was pushing the industry into financial crunch, which may stop the chemical companies to make further investment in responsible care program as well, he said.
He told that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had promised to form a committee to review deferred refund cases for payment with assurance that FBR will issue refunds against approved Refund Payment Orders (RPOs) at the earliest possible. But, he lamented that no progress on this decision has taken place so far at the FBR end.
He observed that several refunds were pending on technical grounds which needed rectification at claimant level. He urged the FBR authorities to provide access of FBR system to PCMA for enabling its members to check their deferred claims of last five years.
He also called for the taxpayers’ education and requested the FBR’s dedicated department for Taxpayers awareness to hold exclusive training sessions with PCMA members on the precautionary measures to avoid claims going into deferred. He demanded to process all pending applications of the sales tax refunds on priority basis and to devise a speedy mechanism for future processing in consultation with the stakeholders.
For more information, contact:
Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA)
407-Eden Heights, Jail Road, Gulberg, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-35786867
E-mail: bds@pcma.org.pk
Website: www.pcma.org.pk