He said that beside this the CBR was also developing a software program which would have all data of tax refund claims, including: when the tax refund claim was filed, how much amount is due, when the goods were exported, company, and other relevant details.
He said that this procedure would make it easy for companies to make claim and, for the department, to verify it. He said that Rs 3 billion sales tax refund cases were stuck up due to verification difficulties, claim record and matching with the amount deposited by the claimant and claim made.
He said as per rules of Auditor General, only those claims would be entertained in which amount was actually received in treasury and matched with claim record.
He said that after bringing five exports-oriented sectors into zero-rated sales tax regime, sales tax refund was no more a big issue.
He said that after bringing the five sectors into zero-rated sales tax regime, the size of sales tax collection had increased by 20 percent.
Shahid assured the business community that stuck up refunds under section 66 would be cleared in the next few weeks.
Regarding utility bills, he said that the case of issuing notification for all the companies in zero-rated sales tax regime to pay zero rated sales tax on electricity bills was with Law Ministry, and he hoped that the same would be issued soon.
Regarding e-filing of sales tax returns, he said that CBR had received around 3000 returns, out of which 400 were cleared and rest were pending due to some mistakes.
He said that 2000 returns were filed without 'digital signature', and added that without digital signature returns were not acceptable.
The Member, Sales Tax, said that e-filing of sales tax return "is a new concept, and requires a little training". The department is also working to remove the difficulties of the return filers, he added.
He appreciated the proposal of SAI chairman Ameen Bandukda for fast track refund of sales tax and said that this proposal needed careful study.
He advised SAI chief to send details of the proposal to be examined and implemented if found workable.
Welcoming the guests, Ameen Bandukda said that stock prior to zero rated be allowed more than three months to be utilised, as some exporters needed to carry 6-9 months inventory.
He said that such hardships cases be audited, checked and be allowed to export on case to case basis.