NA body seeks details of tax refund payments.

Byline: Mubarak Zeb Khan

ISLAMABAD -- The National Assembly Standing ComAmittee on Finance on Wednesday showed displeasure over the payment of refunds to taxpayers while directing the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to share details on Thursday.

The meeting, chaired by MNA Faiz Ullah, gave a one-day deadline to Member FBR Inland Revenue Operation Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed to present details of refund payments and the pending amounts so far. Dr. Ahmed told the committee that the FBR has released an amount of Rs174.8 billion refunds during the outgoing fiscal year (2019-20). The board has also paid Rs100bn additional refunds under the prime minister package, he added.

On the payment claims, MNA Naveed Qamar intervened and asked Dr. Ahmed to share the actual volume of total refunds. He said the committee should also be briefed over the stuck amount and the payment procedures.

MNA Hina Rabbani Khar said that the total stuck refund amount is Rs600bn. The FBR should give a true picture of pending refunds to the committee, she added.

MNA Ayesha Ghous Pasha also blamed the FBR for giving refunds to the elite while others were still waiting for their payments. The committee chairman seconded the observation of the MNAs and asked top FBR officials to come up with details.

Lawmakers accuse FBR of facilitating elite

The NA committee recommended to the government that Javed Ghani should continue for the smooth and effective functioning of the FBR as regular chairman. The government recently gave additional charge of chairman FBR to Mr Ghani for a period of three months.

President, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd. (ZTBL) Shahbaz Jameel briefed the committee about the situational analysis and suggestions for the way forward of the bank...