CBR Chief directs refund claims’ clearance by Dec
Rules out retrenchment of staff
By Adnan Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Chairman, CBR Central Board of Revenue, M. Abdullah Yusuf has directed all the regional and zonal heads of income tax department to decide all pending refund claims of the taxpayers by the end of December, this year.
He was addressing the Quarterly Conference of Regional Commissioners of Income Tax, Director Generals of Large & Medium taxpayers Units and Commissioners of Income Tax, held here on Saturday. The chairman made it categorically clear that all those officers who would not be able to clean up the pending stock by the fixed date would be held accountable. After clearance of the refund stock, the CBR would introduce a new system to deal with the issue which will be more quick and transparent, he disclosed.
Through this system, all in formations regarding claims including date of their filing will be available on CBR’s Website. He asked the tax officers to deal with the refund cases in accordance with their age. Old cases should be decided first and than take up the fresh cases, he advised the commissioners. Referring to the complaints of refund claimants, the Chairman informed the participants that a cell was being created in the CBR to attend all such complaints. He warned that strict action would be taken against all those who would be found involved in wrong practices or corruption.
While reviewing the generation of revenue from industrial sector, the chairman emphasized the need to conduct a comprehensive study on telecom sector and added that the boom in this sector must reflect in revenue collection from it. Talking about deduction of tax by withholding agents, Yusuf asked the IT commissioners to compile a list of the agents of the area under their jurisdiction and connect it with the computerized system, already developed by IMS Wing of CBR. “Most of our problems can be resolved if we deal with them through a computerized system,” he observed.
About the pending tax appeals, filed by the Department at the higher courts, the Chairman asked the Commissioners to thoroughly review all the appeals and withdraw all those which were instituted on frivolous and un-substantiated ground and could not sustainable . Responding to a query, the Chairman categorically rejected the impression that the retrenchment of the staff of CBR or its filed formations was in sight “There is no any such planning”, he added.