MULTAN: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has allowed the Cotton ginners to pay tax directly to the FBR against the sale of cotton to local textile mills and others so that they could claim their refunds as per rule, said Noor-ul-Ameen Hotiana, Chief Commissioner of Regional Tax office, Multan while addressing the ginners at a dinner hosted in his honour here the other day.

He said that it was their top priority to facilitate the tax-payers and they were trying to remove discrepancies and shortcomings in the tax laws in the light of suggestions of the tax-payers.

In his welcome address, the chairman of the PCGA Amanullah Qureshi said that textile mill owners had not paid a huge amount of Rs 55 billion in national treasury which was deducted from the ginners at the rate of one percent at the time of payment of cotton.

The chairman said that the government should take effective measures to recover the huge amount from the textile millers otherwise they would appeal to Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motu action in this connection.

He said that farmers associations should come forward for the security and safety of the growers because influential people were trying to fleece them.

The ceremony was also addressed by Mukhtar Ahmed Baloch, Haji Muhammad Akram, Sheikh Muhammad Saeed, Shahzad Ali Khan, Mian Mehmood Ahmed. They stressed the need for launching workshops, seminars for awareness of the tax-payers.

Tax commissioners Dr Khalil Ahmed, Zubair Bilal, Abid Raza Bodla, Abid Rasool, Ch Zaffar, Kashif Azhar, Dr Muhammad Ali Mashooq Ali were also present on the occasion.