ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday said that it has already given statutory time to taxpayers for filing income tax returns for tax year 2020.
Therefore, no further date will be extended beyond December 08, 2020.
The FBR in an office order intimated about the date for return filing to all the chief commissioners of Inland Revenue. However, the FBR said that taxpayers should be facilitated who request date extension explaining failure to comply with due date.
According to the provision Section 114 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, annual tax return is required to be filed by on or before September 30 every year implying a period of 90 days to taxpayers to discharge their legal obligation.
This year, since new income tax return form was uploaded on IRIS on September 08, 2020, the deadline for filing of the tax return was extended through Circular No. 04 of 2020 on September 30, 2020 till December 08, 2020, allowing the citizens full statutorily – mandated time of 90 days in one go; piecemeal repeated extensions compromise tax administration’s credibility and adversely affect taxpayers’ perception for the future, the FBR said.
The FBR further said that provisions of Section 119(I) of the Ordinance stipulates that a “person required to furnish a tax return under Section 114 … may apply, in writing, to the Commissioner for an extension of time to furnish the return.”
Since the date of filing of tax returns for the tax year 2020, being December 08, 2020 is retained as the final date for the purpose, it is absolutely necessary that commissioners should grant extension in all cases of hardship of any nature.
In order to render the entire process of filing for extension and granting of time to taxpayers for filing of tax returns, IRIS is being modified to make it facilitative and less time-consuming, according to the office order.
The Chief Commissioners have been directed to be fully vigilant and ensure that no requests for extension remain unattended in their jurisdiction.
KARACHI: The President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi has appreciated efforts of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and performance of banks in improving the accessibility infrastructure at banks for persons with disabilities and lauded their efforts for increasing financial inclusion of persons with disabilities.
The president shared his view in an online meeting with the SBP governor Dr. Reza Baqir, SAPM on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Dr Sania Nishtar, senior SBP officials and Presidents/CEOs of banks on Friday, according to a statement issued by the SBP. The meeting took stock of the progress on decisions made for improving the accessibility infrastructure for persons with disabilities.
The president also appreciated the establishment of a Working Group by SBP for taking up the agenda.
Dr. Alvi said that the unavailability of concrete information on the number of people with disabilities is a major limitation for designing comprehensive plans to improve their quality of life.
He shared that the government is working with different stakeholders to have a better estimate of the number of people with disabilities that will help their identification and certification.
He, however, desired that timelines along with a clear vision must be defined clearly for the Working Group.
He further emphasized that such working groups may also be created at each bank. He stated that creating awareness regarding various facilities for persons with disabilities is highly imperative and social media can play an important role in this regard.
The president further said that plight of persons with disabilities has become even more critical in the middle of the prevalent COVID 19 crisis that is deepening pre-existing inequalities.
He appreciated SBP’s specific role in taking a number of measures to address the likely negative economic impacts on individuals, businesses and banking institutions.
The State Bank’s successful measures have reduced the negative impacts of COVID-19 on economic growth, employment generation and at the same time ensured that the banking and payment systems remain healthy, he said.
In response to President, Dr. Alvi’s call, Governor SBP, Dr. Baqir, assured that SBP would continue providing its full regulatory support to increase financial inclusion of persons with disabilities.
The banks’ Presidents/CEOs also pledged their complete cooperation for this objective.
In his welcome remarks, the SBP governor appreciated the exceptional interest and resolve of the President of Pakistan as a source of inspiration for all the stakeholders.
He said that if the society does not provide appropriate support to persons with disabilities, it leads to their economic disempowerment depriving them of their independent economic and social lives.
He remarked that persons with disabilities could economically support themselves and contribute towards the society at large when provided with adequate education, rehabilitation and financial and moral support.
He emphasized that a sizeable number of persons with disabilities do have the required capacity to work and contribute in the mainstream economic activities and thus successfully support their families.
He urged the banks to be cognizant of this gap and explore avenues to make inclusion of this untapped segment of the economy a reality.
SBP presented an update on different action items decided in the last meeting of SBP with the President.
The action items included accessible infrastructure at entrance of all bank branches and ATM cabins, availability of forms and documents in braille for basic banking services, accessibility audit of bank branches by SBP and allocation of credit targets for SBP refinance schemes on SME and Low Cost Housing Finance.
KARACHI: The share market gained 159 points on Friday despite lackluster response from the investors during the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 42,207 points as against 42,048 points showing an increase of 159 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded range bound today, although remained positive the entire session, but lacked the excitement from Investors’ end to make a forward move.
International crude oil prices increased after OPEC+ made the decision for a gradual increase in output in 2021.
E&P stocks responded cautiously to the price increase. O&GMCs, Cement sector stocks saw selling pressure on the concerns over political uncertainty as well as Index correction after an increase of around 2800 points.
The index went up by 269 points during the session, however, selling pressure in the last half hour brought the index down slightly, closing the session +159 points.
Among scrips, TRG posted 42.6 million shares in trading volumes, followed by PRL (30.9 million) and PTC (21.7 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+61 points), Banks (+57 points), Technology (+31 points), O&GMCs (-16 points) and Fertilizer (-12 points).
Volumes increased slightly from 420.3 million shares to 427.5 million shares (+2 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 0.5 percent to reach US$ 113.2 million as against US$ 112.6 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, PRL, PTC, ASL and KEL, which formed 32 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include OGDC (+38 points), TRG (+26 points), UBL (+15 points), PPL (+12 points) and HMB (+11 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include FFC (-12 points), MTL (-11 points), SNGP (-8 points), PSO (-7 points) and EFERT (-6 points).
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports have shown resilience amidst global economic challenges, recording a 2.11% increase to $9.737 billion in the first five months (July – November) of the current fiscal year 2020/2021, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) on Thursday declared the available income tax return form at IRIS – the web portal of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) – as defective and taxpayers are unable to file their returns for tax year 2020.
“Needless to state that the return of income is still defective and incomplete as certain fields are missing to date. The time prescribed of 90 days under Section 118 to file return will not start until all defects in the return of income are completely removed and the return is error free and taken to have been finalized,” the KTBA said in a letter sent to the FBR chairman.
It is pertinent to mention here that the last date for filing income tax returns for tax year 2020 was September 30, 2020. The FBR finalized the return form on September 08, 2020. On the demand of tax bars the FBR extended the last date by 90 days to December 08, 2020.
The tax bar further said that to incorporate/correct certain fields/errors, appropriate Rules needs to be amended which can only be made through a notification as required under section 237(3) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, the KTBA added.
Muhammad Zeeshan Merchant, President, KTBA in its letter to the FBR chairman said that the incorrect computational issues in the return of income still persist and members were facing severe difficulties and were in extreme pressure because of two main situations, which are:
(1) they cannot file the returns on the forms presently available on the IRIS, with wrong formulas, calculating erroneous tax; and
(2) resurgence of the currently ongoing, since many past days, the dangerous life threatening second wave of COVID-19 which has not only gripped the taxpayers but have also affected the members of KTBA in particular and tax consultants in general and their staff.
The KTBA through its letter explained in detail about the incorrect computation of tax under various heads of income.
The tax bar said that the members were working very hard during such extraordinary extreme and testing time, however, due to non-removal of above irritants and rising COVID-19 cases, the members are unable to file their returns of income which could transpire in low number of returns that have been filed till date.
ISLAMABAD: Among countries in the developing world, Pakistan faces one of the most severe crises of malnutrition, which is the fundamental cause of child morbidity and mortality.
Pakistan ranks 88th out of 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index while food security and nutrition crisis is expected to worsen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic because country has a serious hunger level.
These are the finding of the “2020 Global Hunger Index & Strategy for Stakeholders’ Engagement on Food and Nutrition Security 2021– 2025 report launched in Islamabad this week by Alliance 2015 — a strategic network of leading eight European non-government and non-profit organizations engaged in humanitarian and development actions in Pakistan and the world.
The report highlights that the worsening food and nutrition security situation retarded human and economic development and carried the risk of jeopardizing national security if it was not tackled well by government, private sector, civil society, media, public, communities, academia and research institutions, the report pointed out.
“The time to act is now, individually, and collectively,” the report has warned. The report also identifies key stakeholders and roles they can play in averting this crisis besides laying out stakeholders’ engagement goals and objectives in the next five years.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further aggravated the food and nutrition security situation in Pakistan. Travel restrictions and limitations on the movement of essential goods including food and agricultural inputs, protracted loss of income and rise in prices have already negatively impacted millions of Pakistanis.
The IMF has predicted a sharp reversal in the declining poverty rates, with 40 percent of the population below the poverty line after the spread of COVID-19.
Moreover, 17 million children under the age of five are missing routine vaccinations, leaving them unprotected and more vulnerable to health risks posed by COVID-19 outbreak.
The report highlights that globally, far too many individuals are suffering from hunger: nearly 690 million people are undernourished; 144 million children suffer from stunting, a sign of chronic under-nutrition; 47 million children suffer from wasting, a sign of acute under-nutrition; and in 2018, 5.3 million children died before their fifth birthdays, in many cases as a result of under-nutrition.
Although hunger worldwide has gradually declined since 2000, in many places progress is too slow and hunger remains severe.
Furthermore, these places are highly vulnerable to a worsening of food and nutrition insecurity caused by the overlapping health, economic and environmental crises of 2020.
To better respond to, and indeed to prevent, the report highlight that complex emergencies, multilateral institutions, governments, communities and individuals should use the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises to build safe, resilient food systems.
They should review food, health, and economic systems through a One Health lens to chart a path to environmental recovery by investing in sustainable food production, distribution and consumption.
The report warned that beyond 2030, still other actions will be important such as working towards a circular food economy that recycles nutrients and materials, regenerates natural systems and eliminates waste and pollution.
An alarming 37 percent of the population in Pakistan is classified as food insecure; meaning that they do not “have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of globalized food systems characterized by increasing dependence on food imports by low- and middle-income countries, underinvestment in local farmers, farmer associations and smallholder-oriented value chains, increasing rates of diet-related non-communicable disease.
Inadequate emergency responses are disrupting local food systems and fail to support local producers. COVID-19 containment measures—enforced without a clear declaration that agricultural and food services are essential—have contributed to food insecurity in many countries.
KARACHI: The online payment through debit cards for e-commerce registered phenomenal growth of 152 percent in first quarter of current fiscal year, according to data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.
The online payment for e-commerce increased to Rs11.1 billion in the first quarter (July – September) 2020/2021 as compared with Rs4.4 billion in the same quarter of the last fiscal year.
The volume of transactions also registered around 200 percent during the period under review. According to SBP data the volume of debt card transactions increased to 3.9 million during first quarter of the current fiscal year as compared with 1.3 million in the same quarter of the last fiscal year.
The total e-commerce transactions registered 81 percent growth during the first quarter of the current fiscal year. The value of e-commerce transactions (payment through debt, credit and pre-paid cards) increased to Rs24.1 billion during the quarter under review as compared with Rs13.5 billion in the same quarter of the last fiscal year.
The e-commerce transactions through credit card increased to Rs12.9 billion during the first quarter of fiscal year 2020/2021 as compared with Rs9.1 billion in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal year.
KARACHI: The share market ended with an increase of 20 points on Thursday as market traded in range bound during the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 42,047 points against 42,027 points showing an increase of 20 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded range bound after a gradual yet sketchy run up from around 39500 level till now, which has resulted in an addition of 2500 points however, investors still seem perplexed for reasons of rising cases of corona and potential negative impact of lock down.
International crude prices also traded direction less for want of an impending decision by OPEC+ regarding crude output. Resultantly, E&P stocks also traded range bound without much excitement.
Cement and Steel sectors saw cautious buying activity, however, selling pressure kept the increase in prices in check. Among scrips, TRG led the table with 35.2 million shares, followed by MLCF (30.9 million) and ASL (29.6 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Power (-7 points), Pharma (-4 points), E&P (-2 points), Autos (+8 points), Cement (+7 points) and Fertilizer (+5 points).
Volumes declined from 476.8 million shares to 420 million shares (-12 percent DoD). Average traded value also dipped by 12 percent to reach US$ 112.5 million as against US$ 127.4 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, MLCF, ASL, HASCOL and PRL, which formed 36 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SYS (+27 points), LUCK (+17 points), MCB (+15 points), FFC (+15 points) and PSO (+12 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include TRG (-12 points), MTL (-12 points), SEARL (-11 points), HBL (-8 points) and COLG (-7 points).
