Tax offices to remain open till midnight today

Move aimed at facilitating taxpayers in filing their returns

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced that its field offices would remain till midnight on Monday (today) to facilitate taxpayers in filing their income tax returns.

It issued a notification and sent its copies all large taxpayer units, regional tax offices and the chief commissioners of corporate regional tax offices.

The FBR directed all chief commissioners to coordinate with authorised branches of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) so that the tax collections could be shifted to the State Bank on the same day and they were counted in the tax receipts for the month of September.
The State Bank has written a letter to the authorised branches of the NBP directing them to remain open and facilitate taxpayers.

FBR decides to revamp IMS for restaurants

FBR Chairman Syed Shabbar Zaidi has directed the field formations to ensure that such entities file returns before the end of September in the hope of getting some extra revenues along with the returns. However, the authorities believe the majority of these entities were not doing business anymore.

The maximum number of non-filers of sales tax returns is in the jurisdiction of Lahore where 9,871 entities did not file August sales tax returns. In Karachi, about 7,258 entities did not file returns. In Faisalabad, about 3,425 entities did not file returns.

FBR is in shambles: CJP Gulzar

The FBR may sustain around Rs100-billion shortfall in tax collection against the trimmed first-quarter target of Rs1.071 trillion, which may increase prospects of returning to the old habit of taking heavy advances to narrow the gap.

The original first-quarter target was Rs1.112 trillion that the FBR reduced after seeing dismal results. Against the original target, the shortfall could have been nearly Rs140 billion.

The government and the IMF have given an unrealistic target of Rs5.503 trillion to the FBR, which is not backed by required tax measures. A slowdown in economic activities has further complicated the matter for the FBR.