Exporters in a quandary over stuck-up refunds

The worries of exporters are increasing as the federal government is heading towards its last working day because they are not sure whether or not their stuck-up sales tax and duty drawback refunds would be released. Most of the exporters are running from pillar to post for ensuring an immediate release of funds against the Refund Payment Orders (RPOs) of sales tax already issued them earlier.
They said the government should also clear duty drawback tax claims submitted till date to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) under the Prime Minister's export package. Also, the government should announce continuity of the DDT scheme for the value-added textile industry in future as well, they added.
They pointed out that the prevailing liquidity crunch is playing havoc with the viability of textile industry in Pakistan. According to these circles, the textile exports had registered a growth of 13.65 percent after the announcement of this package. However, he lamented that the commitments made under the PM package remained unmet due to the dilly-dallying attitude of the government.
Despite repeated assurances of early payment of stuck-up claims, the situation on ground is quite miserable as billions of rupees have not been released to them by the FBR. While apprehending that the uncertainty would lead to a threat to the growth of textile exports, they have blamed the government for following anti-exporters approach of former finance minister Ishaq Dar.
They said no payment of sales tax refunds has been made since last eight months and claims worth billions of rupees are yet unpaid despite the issuance of RPOs. The stuck up refunds worth over Rs 100 billion, exclusively of textile industry, are unpaid, they added.
They have termed this huge amount very precious to them, saying that they utilize these refunds three times a year to generate more exports. They have urged the need of evolving a mechanism in future to ensure smooth clearance of refunds on permanent basis to save financial cost, processing cost, spending of industry's man-hours etc.