Multan, liquidity crunch has broken the back of small and medium manufacturers exporters due to inordinate delay in payment of sales tax refunds and this situation may cause adverse effects on Pakistani exports warned by Syed Muhammad Asim Shah Chairman of All Pakistan Bedsheet & Upholstry manufacturers Association(APBUMA) in his hurriedly issued statement.He said that exporters are already forced to shut their units due to global recession while payments are withheld for the last one month adding to their miseries and hardships.Syed Muhammad Asim Shah said that textile exporters in general and Small and medium exporters in special are passing through economic stress.He clarified that it is the personal trade liquidity of exporters which is dumped in Government coffers without assigning any reason.APBUMA Chairman said that Government had made commitment that all payments would be made under FASTER system and Clearance would be mandatory in 72 hours after issuance of ERPO but the situation is other way round.What a pity that now FBR authorities are talking about deferment of Payment in December 2022 against the already approved ERPO.He said that it is a tyrannical act of bureaucracy which would leave detrimental effects on industry.
Expressing his grave concern, Syed Muhammad Asim Shah said that in the current situation, when the markup on bank loans is reaching its extremes and refunds are not being made, the small and medium exporters are very worried to continue their production. Syed Muhammad Asim Shah said that in 2019-20, SRO 1125 was repealed under which all exporting sectors were zero-rated. After promising a refund under FASTER, now the action is being taken reluctantly. He demanded that SRO 1125 Falfur should be restored under which "No Tax, No Refund" should be promoted so that the exporters can focus on increasing the exports of the country free from the hassle of refund.
He appealed to the Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, to address the problem immediately, keeping the financial difficulties of the exporters in front.
Chairman APBUMA expressed the hope that the Finance Minister would also sympathetically consider the issue of GST refunds in the light of approval to provide energy to the export oriented sector on a competitive basis.