FBR Issues Directives for Inquiry into Suspicious Exemptions Certificates

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed the field formations to investigate the issuance of suspicious exemptions certificates. Sources told ProPakistani that the FBR has issued directions to large, medium, corporate, and regional taxpayers’ offices pertaining to the furnishing of reports on exemptions certificates issued under SRO 717(1)/2014 from withholding tax u/s 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001. The SRO reads as follows: “I am directed to refer to the subject and to state that vide SRO 717(1)/2014 dated August 7, 2014, the board specified the conditions and the manner for issuance of exemption certificates to the exempt import of raw materials from the operation of provisions of Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 for industrial undertakings for their own consumption SRO 717(1)/2014 remained in the field till June 30, 2020, when the entire import-stage taxation regime was overhauled.” ALSO READ Finance Minister Suggests a Strategy to Prevent Hoarding of Basic Commodities The SRO, when in the field, mandated every Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue (CCIR) to furnish a report to the Board on the correctness, propriety, and validity of the Exemption Certificates (ECs) issued on a six-monthly basis. However, it appears that the CCIRs’ oversight on the process of ECs u/s 148 of the I.T.O. 2001 has apparently neither been at the desired level nor have the six-monthly reports been submitted, it added. “Accordingly, I am directed to request all CCIRs to conduct an examination of all suspicious ECs issued by their formations during TY 2020 viz-a-viz the “conditions” and the “manner” specified in SRO 717(1)/2014 and furnish a report to the Board by August 31, 2021,” the SRO added.