LAHORE: The Sales Tax Department officials are using negative tactics to meet their revenue targets by misusing Section 38 of the Sales Tax Act 1990 and tax is being collected through harassment and misuse of section 38.
According to details, FBR officials entered a local factory FAS Tube Mills & Engineering Industries (Pvt) Ltd without prior notices or any intimation, which is against rules and regulations. An assistant commissioner along with a team of subordinates issued notices on the spot. The record of stock was provided to them, and even after satisfactory physical examination, they refused to accept the valuation and measured the stocks just on assumptions without any well-accepted criteria.
Undue notices and raids of Sales Tax Audit have created an atmosphere of harassment amongst the business community. In the presence of such anti business tactics, it would be very difficult for the private sector to continue with their businesses whereas the business are already going through very critical times due to the unavailability of necessary electricity & gas.
Accordingly, a team visited the premises of the company on 13 December 2016 in the late hours and demanding that immediate stocktaking be conducted. This was without any prior notice and no time was given for submission of record. The staff available in the factory at that point of time allowed and guided them to visit the premises and also gave a copy of the physical stock.
The visiting team, instead of relying on stock reports given, conducted sketchy stock taking and got the signature of the said foreman on the so called stock report prepared by the visiting team members, explained the owner. The owner lamented that there were many discrepancies in the report prepared by the department at the spot.
For example, the team was informed that in all 27 bowsers were at different stages of production. However, the visiting team counted only those bowsers who had been manufactured or were in the final stages of manufacturing. The team did not even wait for the arrival of the senior management with whom the matter has been discussed.