FBR warns of penalties amid filers grievances

FBR warns of penalties amid filers grievances

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday warned non-filers of harsh action including monetary penalty and imprisonment.

In a statement, a FBR spokesman said that the last date for filing income tax return for tax year 2021 is October 15, 2021 and it will not be further extended.

The actual last date for filing the income tax returns for tax year 2021 was September 30, 2021. However, to technical issues on the FBR portal this date was extended for 15 days. The FBR in this regard issued Circular No. 08 to extend the date of filing income tax returns.

Through the latest statement, the FBR urged the persons having taxable income or those who are required to file their returns under Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, should file their returns in remaining two days.

According to the statement the FBR’s IRIS portal was working smoothly. “Therefore, no further date will be extended beyond October 15, 2021,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman further said that after the due date the non-filers would face monetary penalty of Rs1,000 each day of default. Furthermore, the non-filers may face imprisonment for two years.

The tax practitioners, however, are not satisfied with the performance of the FBR stating that the technical issues were not resolved so far.

“Despite repeated requests the FBR has not resolved the issues in return filing,” Zeeshan Merchant, President, Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) told PkRevenue.com

Merchant said that calculation error in return form for SMEs was still a major issue.

Besides, these issues the taxpayers and tax practitioners had also faced slow speed of internet, which was caused by a fault in international cable, as income tax returns are required to file electronically.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) a day earlier issued a statement on the cable fault and said that it was monitoring the situation and will continue to update on it.

“A submarine cable fault was reported yesterday near Fujairah, UAE due to which some users may have faced degradation in services. The faulty cable segment has been repaired & work is underway to make the services fully functional,” the PTA said.