'No dearth of funds for grant of VAT refunds in Punjab'

Amid industry's claims of delay in tax refunds, Punjab Excise and Taxation Department today said the pendency in VAT refunds have come down sharply, saying there is no dearth of funds for the payment of refunds.
In a meeting with members of Ludhiana Tax Bar Association, Punjab Excise and Taxation Commissioner Anurag Verma said the pendency of refunds has come down from Rs 547 crore to Rs 273 crore while attributing the drop in pendency to creation of dedicated fund for making tax refund.
"There is no dearth of funds for grant of Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds," he asserted in the meeting.

"Earlier average monthly outflow of refunds was about Rs 45 crore which has now been doubled to about Rs 90 crore," he said.
For the month of June, funds to be tune of Rs 200 crore have been allocated for giving refunds, said Verma.
Verma said the maximum pendency of VAT refunds was in Ludhiana which stood at Rs 128 crore out of total pending refund of Rs 273 crore.

He said the problem of pendency arose as one of the Department's official at Ludhiana was appointed as Assistant Returning Officer in Lok Sabha polls.
Excise Commissioner said out of the 2.25 lakh total registered dealers in Punjab, only about 4,000 were tax refund seekers.

In the meeting, Harish Dhanda, ex-Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Punjab and Arun Kanwal, President, Bar Association said tax refunds should be cleared on the basis of 'first in first out' principle.