Tax-related issues facing APTMA will be resolved, CC LTO Lahore tells office-bearers

LAHORE: Sajjad Tasleem Azam, Chief Commissioner Large Tax Office (LTO) Lahore, has assured APTMA members of solving tax related issues of the textile industry on priority including Sales tax and Income tax refunds, deferred refund claims, adjustment of pending refunds against liabilities and prompt issuance of exemption certificates.
He was speaking to APTMA members during his visit to APTMA on Tuesday.
He was accompanied by Khaliq Farooq Mian, Commissioner LTO Lahore.
Chairman APTMA Kamran Arshad, Chairman North Asad Shafi, Haroon Ellahi, Muhammad Ali, Sufiyan Akhtar senior Executives, and Secretary General Raza Baqir welcomed tax functionaries on their visit to APTMA.
Office-bearers and leading members of Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP), including Rana Tariq Mehboob Patron-in-Chief CAP, Ahsan Mehmood Senior Vice Chairman CAP, Wasif Sikander of Maria B, top exporters and retailers were also present on the occasion.
The Chief Commissioner LTO said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has established LTOs to address the issues of large taxpayers while acknowledging their role in revenue generation.
He appreciated APTMA's role in export and employment enhancement. He said FBR has paid refunds of billions of rupees during the current year, including deferred claims despite facing shortfall in tax targets. He sought a list of APTMA members who were not able to receive refunds so far for expeditious processing of their claims.
Replying to the suggestion that the LTO should allow tax adjustment against refund claims, he said that FBR is already processing inter-tax adjustments to facilitate the taxpayers.
Chief Commissioner promised to address the problem of shortage of staff to attend tax related issues of exporters. He also sought proposals to improve sales tax refund system.
He appreciated the role of chain stores in the economy of Pakistan and providing par excellence service to their customers which is not in any case less than the service provided in the best malls all around the globe. He lauded that tier-I Retailers are all tax compliant and duly integrated with FBR-POS system since 2018 which should encourage others retailers also to integrate with FBR.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Chairman APTMA Kamran Arshad said tax refunds of a large number of taxpayers are pending with the LTO, causing financial crunch for already crisis-driven textile industry and requested for their immediate disposal to provide financial relief to exporters.
Kamran pointed out that a huge amount of sales tax claims are deferred by the FASTER system, which require normal processing by the tax authorities. These deferred claims are needed to be processed immediately as funds worth millions of rupees of every member mill are stuck up, he added.
He urged the visiting Chief Commissioner to set up a dedicated cell for processing of all deferred cases with the direction of no pendency for more than one month. In case of staff shortage, he proposed that at least 80 percent of the claimed amount may be sanctioned provisionally to the corporate sector against undertaking.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

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