Federal Minister for Textile Industry Abbas Khan Afridi presided over a meeting on the issues of textiles sector with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday.
The minister stressed that it was a national obligation to bail out textile industry from cash flow crunch and release the stuck up claims on priority basis as textile exports account for more than 55 percent of foreign exchange. Secretary MINTEX, chairman FBR, member IRS and textile representatives attended the meeting.
FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa apprised the minister that RPOs worth 8 billion had already been issued for the period July, August and September.
Claims worth 14 billion are classified as deferred payments on account of some deficiencies, whereas claims worth 8.2 billion had been freshly filed. Further, all the deferred claims would be disposed off before Feb, 28, 2015, and necessary instructions had already been issued.
The chairman highlighted that from July 2014 to January 2015, Rs 14 billion refund claims of the textile sector had already been paid against Rs 8 billion in corresponding period of last year. He assured that the refund claims till October 2014 would be cleared before the deadline.
Representatives from the textile sector praised Textile Minister and chairman FBR for their cooperation. They highlighted that delay in payments is the one of the main issue that keeps hindering their business cycle and requires immediate attention. It was agreed to make the payment procedure more swift and speedy.
The minister was apprised that special excise duty had already been addressed. The minister was requested to look into the issue of duty draw back claims that remained pending from December 2013. The chairman assured that he would look into the matter and would inform accordingly.
To further streamline the payments, the minister invited the stakeholders to come up with recommendations on domestic and export bifurcation and directed his team to make the procedure compliant to international best practices.
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