KARACHI: The national sales tax return is not transmitting the data relating to supplies and goods to the taxpayers registered with provincial authorities, the Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) said in a letter.
“The National Sales Tax Return is not transmitting data relating to supplies of goods to the taxpayers registered for sales tax on services despite the fact their suppliers have fully filed their National Sales Tax Returns, hence, service providers are deprived of their legitimate adjustable input tax,” PTBA noted in a letter sent to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed.
The integration of sales tax returns of all federal and provincial tax authorities is a flagship initiative of the FBR. The first sales tax return at the national tax portal was to be filed for the month of December 2021, in January 2022.
Due to numerous glitches, the FBR extended the date several times to file the return for the period.
The sales tax return for the month of January 2022 is now due on February 18, 2022. The PTBA said that despite highlighting issues, the federal tax authority had failed to rectify errors in the national sales tax return.
The PTBA said that a committee constituted by the FBR comprising Zahid Ateeq Chaudhry and Ch Qamar-uz-Zaman, has pointed out the issues in the national sales tax return.
The committee highlighted that zero rated purchases for the months are not transferred for consumption, which is creating discrepancy related to refund claim as well as income tax declaration.
The pharmaceutical sector has been brought under zero rating regime through Finance (Supplementary) Act, 2022, which is still not under the sales tax expeditious refund rules, therefore, this sector is unable to file refund claims.
It also pointed out that the sales tax withheld by the government departments are not still available for claim.
The PTBA urged the FBR chairman that considering the problems, the date of filing of sales tax return for the tax period December 2021 and January 2022 should be extended up to February 25, 2022.
