ISLAMABAD, April 25: Chairman Central Board of Revenue (CBR) M Abdullah Yousuf on Wednesday asked the commissioners of income tax and directors general of large taxpayer units (LTUs) to clear pending refunds of Rs11.4 billion by the end of June.

“We have to create a clean slate over these issues to enable the department to concentrate on other issues of paramount importance,” remarked the chairman while chairing the 13th national tax conference.

He asked the officials to take it as a challenge and show similar spirit and commitment, which was shown in liquidation of 80,000 tax appeals and adjudication cases in a short span of two years.

About the current refunds position, Member Income Tax Salman Nabi informed that the opening pending stock balance as on July 1, 2006, was Rs19.73 billion. An amount of Rs26.91 billion was added to it in the preceding months.

During the process, refunds amounting to Rs25.71 billion were issued in addition to deletion of the refund amount of Rs9.41 billion, thus leaving the refund balance of Rs11.4 billion as on March 31.

About arrears, he said the opening balance as on July 1, 2006, was Rs29.85 billion. Later, an amount of Rs12.4 billion was added to it, making the total as Rs42.27 billion. Out of this amount, an amount of Rs2.1 billion was recovered and Rs13.6 billion deleted, leaving the closing balance as Rs27.02 billion on March 31.

The conference was informed that net revenue collection in direct taxes was up by 59 per cent to Rs237 billion in first nine months of the current financial year as compared to Rs149 billion in the corresponding period of the last financial year.

The chairman urged the tax mangers to pay attention to streamline laws and rules and upgrade and update the systems and procedures aimed at bringing a real change in our taxation system.

Mr Yousuf informed the conference that all the 13 regional tax offices (RTOs) will have full-fledged audit wings to deal with such issues. He, however, directed that internal audit observations should be dealt on the lines of external audit.

Working paper of all the years involved should be prepared as is being done in the case of external audit reports, he added.

Member (Direct Taxes), Salman Nabi, informed the conference that total advance tax received in first nine months was Rs84 billion as compared to Rs43 in the same period of last financial year, showing a growth of 95 per cent.

Similarly, the tax collected with the returns was Rs48 billion as compared to Rs24 billion last year, registering an increase of 100 per cent.

Commenting on various problems relating to implementation of new challan forms, the chairman informed the conference that he was going to hold a meeting with the governor of State Bank and the president of National Bank of Pakistan on May 5 in Karachi to sort out all issues.